


Nether Worry

by supercasey



Series: Red Vs. Blue One-Shots [16]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Red vs. Blue
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Minecraft, Angst, Based on a Tumblr Post, Boys In Love, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Death, Denial, Denial of Feelings, Depression, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Idiots in Love, M/M, Matter of Life and Death, Minecraft, Multiple Pairings, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Romance, Severe Amounts of Fluff, Slice of Life, Tucker in Denial, multiple parts, some people die
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-04
Updated: 2015-07-24
Packaged: 2018-02-11 19:44:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 51,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2080803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supercasey/pseuds/supercasey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Minecraft AU. In which the Reds and Blues come across a lonely Creative Mode dweller, Sarge makes about ten times more Iron Golems than are strictly necessary, and where Tucker learns that Wash is indeed not a replacement for Church and that may or may not be a bad thing after all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Yo, this is Supercasey! While waiting on my own ass to get some inspiration and finish this monster of a fanfiction, I've taken the liberty of beginning to run through the fic and fix several spelling errors, as well as fixing a few pieces of dialogue. If you have any questions, please contact me at supercasey.tumblr.com, or comment on whatever chapter you have questions on!)

Nether Worry

Part 1

Pairing: Agent Washington/Tucker, Caboose/Church, Grif/Simmons

...

"You’re leaving us?"

Church glanced up at Tucker after retrieving his bow and arrow from the chest, giving the younger miner a once over; Tucker was dressed in loosely fitting, teal dyed leather armor that was once worn by a much older miner, who had lost his last life months ago. Beside Tucker was Caboose, who wore blue dyed leather armor, tears trailing down his babyish face at a steady pace. Church sighed, looking away again to focus on grabbing more equipment from his chest. He had a long road ahead of him.

"Only for a little while," Church reminded Tucker, grabbing some bread while he was at it. "Tex is fucking determined to get that damn egg, and I’m not about to let her go out there alone.”

"Dude, you only have, like, four or five lives left," Tucker reminded Church, tapping his foot as he swung his enchanted diamond sword uselessly by his side. "Can’t you stay put? We just got over Flowers, and we’re almost done putting up torches around the base! We won't have to deal with Creepers ever again!"

Church shook his head, sighing. “I’ve made up my mind, Tucker. I gotta go.”

"Please don’t," Caboose whispered, sniffling as he rubbed at his eyes, intent on staring at his boots instead of at his friend. "I do not want you to die."

"Hey," Church started, walking right up to Caboose; such moments of affection were rare enough as it was, reminding them of the inevitable, otherwise Church wouldn’t dare act like that in front of Tucker. “I’ll be back before you know it, buddy. I’ll even bring you back a wolf, how ‘bout that?”

"Will he have a blue collar?" Caboose asked, finally clearing his face of his tears, leaving his face red. His shaggy black hair stuck to his forehead with sweat, reminding Church of the nightmares Caboose had experienced the night before upon learning that Church would be leaving the next morning.

Church shrugged. “I’ll see what I can do," He turned away, taking a peek out the window at where Tex and her Creeper, Andy, were. The blonde woman waved upon seeing him, to which he waved back. “Whelp, looks like this it,” He smirked, nodding once at Tucker. “It’s been real. Later, dumbasses.”

As soon as Church left, Caboose made a run for the door, but Tucker beat him to it, having to physically block the door from Caboose with two blocks of iron to make him stay put. “Caboose, stop!” He yelled, glaring a bit at the younger miner. “If he wants to go, let him! We don’t need him anyhow...”

"No, I need Church!” Caboose howled, suddenly stopping, diving into his inventory.

Tucker looked away, sighing deeply. “Look, Caboose, I get that-” He stopped though as he heard a thunk. When he turned around, an Iron Golem stood behind him, the door wide open as the Golem held a flower out to him peacefully.

Outside, Caboose was screaming and crying for Church, looking around everywhere, but the cobalt dressed miner was long gone, having taken off with Tex as soon as he had gotten outside. Finally, the youngest blue miner collapsed to his knees in the field, right in front of the ravine separating Blue Team from Red Team. There, he began sobbing loudly, the Reds giving him almost guilty looks as they watched from afar, not daring to start anything after what had just happened. Tucker soon made his way over to Caboose, rubbing the blue miner’s back soothingly as Caboose bawled, hoping to somehow comfort him.

"It’ll be okay, man," Tucker assured, sighing again, watching the forest nearby with a sad expression. "We’ll be just fine, you’ll see."

…

They certainly were not fine.

It had been exactly two months since Church had left, and to say things were bad was an understatement. Not only were they low on resources, but Caboose was in no shape to fight, constantly holed up in the base, refusing to come out, which was very dangerous, considering he was the only guy in the canyon who was good at getting supplies without dying. Tucker had made attempts, yes, but he always ended up getting killed on the way back, making him lose lives way faster than he would have liked. Not only that, but the Reds were also having a hard time, seeing as the Reds and Blues traded food for mining materials a lot.

The Reds were low on mined materials, and the Blues were low on food and resources.

In short, they were screwed unless things changed.

Tucker glared at the map splayed on the table in front of him, all of this brewing terribly in his head. He knew that fighting monsters could potentially get them a few resources, but not only would that not solve the Reds’ mining problem, but zombie meat was not exactly the best source of protein (Last time Grif had eaten zombie meat, he had lost a life attempting to somehow outrun a horde of Skeletons, but had been unable to escape). He sighed, tossing the map into his inventory before picking up his sword. It was almost sun up, meaning most of the monsters would de-spawn very soon.

It was time to try again.

The aqua miner stood up briskly, stopping at the door. “I’m going out!” Tucker yelled over his shoulder, facing towards the front door of the base. “You wanna come this time, Caboose?”

There was no reply.

"See ya later, buddy." Tucker called out before leaving through the front door. He knew better than to ask twice.

The miner walked quickly over the bridge to Red Base. Although they fought constantly, they had reached a point where they agreed that relying on the Blues to get food was hopeless, so traveling together may prove more fruitful. Today would be their first attempt at it. Upon reaching Red Base, Tucker was greeted by Donut, Simmons, and Grif, all dressed up and armed with Stone/Iron Swords. Donut seemed cheerful as could be, Grif looked just about ready to take a nap, and Simmons looked about as hopeful as a puppy in a pound. Tucker sighed, swinging his sword in the air with boredom.

"Ready to hunt?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

"Did you bring Caboose?" Simmons asked at once.

"Nope." Tucker replied.

Simmons shrugged. “Then we may as well prepare to die.”

"Oh come on, guys!" Donut cheered, still looking hopeful, despite the other men’s severe lack of enthusiasm. "We can do it, we just gotta work together!"

"Easy for you to say; you’ve never seen an Endermen’s eyes." Simmons pointed out, shivering deeply at the memory.

"What color were they?" Donut asked curiously.

Simmons froze, looking away. “I… Never mind, I don’t wanna talk about it. Come on, last one to the forest is a rotten Ender E- Chicken Egg!” He corrected quickly.

The four miners quickly shoved off, presumably to find some food. At first, things seemed to be going quite well; Grif had managed to find some apples on the ground, Simmons had killed a few Cows, Donut had found a few chicken eggs, and Tucker had taken out plenty of Chickens and Pigs. By the time they bothered to stop, they looked around, surprised to find themselves far away from the forest. Last time they had checked, there were no deserts anywhere near Blood Gulch…

"Aw, fuck." Tucker muttered, looking around wildly.

Out of the frying pan, into the shit as they always say.

…

"Woo hoo!"

"Wait up, York!"

"Try to keep up, man!"

Three young Creative Mode miners flew through the air, occasionally even falling from great, great heights, only to catch themselves mid-air at the last second, reveling in the adrenaline rush it gave them. York was acting the wildest, not even bothering to fly, just using Ender Pearls to go from tree top to tree top. North was playing it safer, despite his obvious invincibility, flying softly through the air as his Chick, Theta, rode on his shoulder, occasionally rubbing tenderly against his neck. Washington was farther back, where no one could see him, deep in the forest brush.

"Fuck, did we lose Wash?" York asked, stopping to look around.

As if on cue, Washington burst out from the trees, riding a runaway pig. “Look out!” He shouted, his ocelot Epsilon hissing as he clung to Wash’s back, the grey miner zooming over the canopy.

York burst into laughter. “Holy shit, you okay, Wash?”

"I’m getting that Achievement if it’s the last thing I do! It’s the only one no one’s gotten yet besides that mine-cart thing!" Wash yelled over his shoulder.

"Wait, you turned off Creative!?" York asked, looking at Wash with wide eyes. "Are you nuts? You weren’t born in Survival Mode; you only have three lives!"

"So what? ‘Lina does it all the time! I’m not some helpless kid, York," Wash pointed out, holding onto the pig as he saw a cliff up ahead. "I’ll be fine, I promise!"

”WASH!”

Washington suddenly snapped forward, seeing now that the cliff was much higher than he had first thought, but it was too late. The pig rocketed off the edge, sending Wash and Epsilon with him. York, along with his wolf Delta, stopped at the edge, staring down with wide eyes as Wash soon crashed to the bottom, his whole body flashing blood red as he fell over. A small sentence popped up over his head '[Washington fell down too hard]'. York and North winced, seeing Wash’s body disappear, followed by Epsilon teleporting away, presumably to wherever his master spawned at. York and North exchanged a look.

"Maine, ‘Lina, and Connie are not gonna be happy about this," North muttered, whistling loudly as he peered over the edge again. “That was a fucking drop of drops right there.”

"No kidding," York agreed, Delta whimpering at his side, rubbing his muzzle into York’s leg. The miner smiled reassuringly as he patted Delta’s head. "S’kay, D. Wash’ll be fine, he’s once of us after all."

North nodded, turning away. “Come on, let’s go break the news and round up a search party.”

"If we’re lucky, Wash dug himself a hole and is waiting patiently for us." York explained, grabbing a fishing rod and attaching it to Delta’s bright green collar, guiding him away from the ledge.

”Or he’ll try and make his way back on his own without bothering to make tools like a rational person.” North muttered, Theta falling asleep on his shoulder.

"Yeah, or he’ll do that." York agreed solemnly, trailing behind the much taller, purple armored miner. The Director would not be happy about this...

…

When Washington woke up, he immediately found himself to be staring up at the bright blue sky, Epsilon taking up a fraction of his vision as the black and white cat meowed in question above him.

"Son of a bitch." Wash muttered, slapping his face. "Lina’s gonna kill me… never should’ve trusted Wyoming with helping me turn my Creative Mode off… how ‘m I supposed to get home now?"

Epsilon almost seemed to shrug, clambering on top of Wash, curling into a ball, and promptly taking a nap.

"Yeah, good call." Wash whispered, his vision still blurry and head still aching from the initial fall he had just suffered through; the biggest issue with turning off Creative was that actually dying in Survival was that much weirder and harsher, especially if you were born in Creative Mode like Wash and the other Freelancers had been.

"I’ll worry about it when it’s a bigger issue." Washington decided, rolling over and snuggling Epsilon close to his chest; at least Creepers will stay away, he thought hopefully.

…

"Well, this is just fucking great.” Tucker muttered, glaring around at the yellow sand as night began to fall. “Where even is the forest?”

"Who the fuck knows?" Simmons replied, looking just as frustrated if not more so than Tucker. "Sarge is gonna be pissed!"

”Really, you’re worried about Sarge at a time like this?” Grif questioned, unimpressed by the maroon miner’s reaction. “I’d be more worried about Spiders, Simmons.”

”Spiders!?” Donut squeaked, rushing to hide behind Grif. “I hate Spiders!”

Grif nodded in agreement. “Spiders, Simmons.” He stated, poking Simmons annoyingly on the forehead. “Can’t outrun a Spider.”

Simmons scoffed, smacking Grif’s hand away with a scowl on his face. “Maybe you can’t outrun one, Grif, but that doesn’t mean we can’t.”

"Don’t you guys ever get anything done?" Tucker asked, exasperated.

"Actually, Grif might be right." Simmons finally said, looking very concerned. "If Grif gets hurt, we’ll have to carry him; there are only three of us.”

"Look, let’s not jump to anything here!" Tucker instructed, yanking out his sword as the sun finally disappeared, a half moon rising on the horizon. "We’ll be fine if we just-"

Ssssssssssssssssssssss

Ssssssssssssssssssssss

Ssssssssssssssssssssss

"Son of a bitch…" Tucker muttered darkly, pouting in defeat at the sandy ground.

…

"Woman and children last!"

"Oh shit, retreat!"

"Someone tell my mother I love her!"

"Oh God, I’m gonna die… *gasp* I’m gonna die…”

The four miners ran like all Hell was loose, making an attempt to outrun the four Creepers chasing them through the desert. They occasionally attempted shooting arrows at them, but it did little to stop their impending dooms. After only a few minutes, they were all panting heavily, barely able to keep going, seeing as their hunger was low from not only their lack of food at the bases, but from the fact that they’d wasted alot of it hunting and gathering all day. Tucker and the Reds soon managed to duck behind a slope, whimpering quietly as the hissing grew louder.

"We are so dead.” Simmons whispered, looking horrified as he drew his bow, ready to fight to the death if it was necessary. “See you fuckers in Blood Gulch.”

"We’re not dead yet." Tucker announced, drawing his sword, swinging it in the air for extra effect. "I still have a few bars of Hunger left… I can get ‘em if you guys distract a few away from me…"

At once, Simmons and Donut took off, running back over the slope and dashing around the Creepers, presumably to distract them for Tucker; one blew up though and took Donut out with him. “Donut!” Simmons shreaked in fear.

"He’ll re-spawn on his bed, keep going!" Tucker instructed, running out and beginning his ‘Hit ‘n Run’ trick at one of the Creepers, eventually taking it out. "Grif, run!”

”Fuck!” Grif shouted, running as fast as he could away from the Creepers, only to trip and fall flat on his face, soon being surrounded.

Simmons suddenly rushed in, just as the three remaining Creepers began to glow white. "Grif!" He yelled, diving in just as the explosion went off.

Tucker, even though he was farther away from the initial blast, was still knocked off his feet, rolling and rolling for what felt like hours but was really thirty-two seconds before he landed, somewhat harshly, behind another sand slope. The aqua miner groaned loudly, pulling off his mostly ruined helmet with a grunt, tossing it aside as he rubbed blood from his forehead. Finally, after a few minutes of terrifying and lonely silence, Tucker rolled over, coming face to face with a knocked out, grey dressed miner, who had a small black and white tamed ocelot held tight against his chest; cuts, bruises, and scrapes covered the poor sap’s face.

"Fuck." Tucker muttered, rolling over to face the sky again, cursing loudly under his breath before he finally passed out from Hunger.

…

"Tucker!" Was the first word screeched out of Donut’s mouth when he woke up hours later, alone in Red Base, tucked into his bed. "Where-"

"Easy there, soldier." Sarge instructed, pulling out a red potion from his inventory, pouring it into a small wooden bowl and handing it to the younger miner. "You took quite a spill according to them Blues."

"Where’s Tucker?" Donut asked, worry creasing his face. "Last thing I knew, I was lodged in a Creeper sandwich!"

Sarge gave Donut a weird look, then shook it off. “He’s fine, son.” He assured him, nodding at the bowl. “Drink up; it’ll help heal them scars on yer face better.”

Donut moved a hand towards the hand-mirror on his nightstand, attempting to see the scars that may or may not be permanently scribed onto his face, but Sarge stopped him, his face stern. “Let’s wait ‘til later, boy. Not sure yer ready to see just yet…”

"Where is everyone?" Donut asked, determined as ever to learn about everything that had happened.

"Tucker’s holed up in Blue Base with Caboose takin’ care ‘a that new Blue boy-" Sarge explained, brewing up another potion at the Enchantment Table. "-‘N Simmons hasn’t left Grif’s side since he woke up… lazy bastard won’t wake up yet."

"Wait, you’re not making any sense." Donut pointed out, furrowing his brow at Sarge. "Why isn’t Grif waking up, who’s this Blue guy?"

Sarge shrugged, grumbling as he worked. “You know Grif’s a lazy bastard, ‘n that Blue boy was found in the desert along with the other Blue when I up and went after you boys! You’re all damn lucky I found ‘em, otherwise them Skeletons and Zombie woulda gotten ‘em!”

Donut finally smiled after taking it all in, nodding at Sarge. “Thanks, sir.” He answered, looking amazed. “That’s so nice of you to help Tucker and a random stranger.”

"Woulda killed ‘em if it weren’t for that damn cat!" Sarge shouted, banging his fist on the table as he remembered that Godawful feline. "Lil hairball up and took my bow! Lousy bastard… ‘m tellin’ ya, it had ta be a tiger, or some sorta big cat kitten thing-a-ma-jig…"

"What, like a puma?"

Both men snapped up and gazed over at the orange bed beside Donut, where Grif laid barely conscious, looking as bored as usual.

"Grif, you’re alive!" Donut cheered, wincing however when he attempted to lift his arms up, deciding to instead just smile happily at him as an alternative. "You had me going th-"

"What in God’s name is a puma!?" Sarge boomed, interrupting Donut entirely, as if he didn’t exist at all.

Grif blinked, unaffected by his leader’s anger. “It’s a puma, ya know, like a big cat.” He made two pawing motions with both of his hands, as if to illiterate his point further. “It’s a real animal.”

"Yer makin’ that up…" Sarge whispered in a deadly and serious tone, readying his back-up bow.

Meanwhile, Donut gave Simmons, who was lying lazily by Grif’s side on the bed, a small chuckle. “Typical Red Team morning.” He muttered.

Simmons nodded in agreement, yawning before he snuggled closer to Grif, enjoying the heat the chubbier man gave off.

Just a typical Red Team morning.

…

A/N: Part 1 of what I plan to have three or even five parts of! Please reblog and like, or comment if you’re on AO3!

~Supercasey.


	2. Part 2

Nether Worry

Part 2

Pairing: Agent Washington/Tucker, Caboose/Church, Grif/Simmons

...

"Tucker?"

Sarge didn't even look up at Caboose as he dropped off a knocked out Tucker in front of Blue Base, along with an equally KO'd stranger. Caboose was peeking out from behind the door of the base, watching Sarge curiously as he started off towards Red Base, grumbling about lazy bastards and almost unheard worries for his men. Once he had crossed the bridge, Caboose fully emerged from the base, tiptoeing with caution towards Tucker and the stranger; both were covered in wounds, most small, considering they hadn't been killed. Caboose was gentle as he tossed Tucker over his shoulder, suddenly raising an eyebrow down at the stranger.

The blue miner crouched down, blue eyes wide as the young stranger stirred, blinking his eyes open to squint through the harsh light of dawn at Caboose. Caboose frowned, getting on his knees, angling Tucker to loosely hang on his back, Caboose's left arm held back to support the smaller Blue and keep him from falling off. The stranger hissed when Caboose pressed a hand against an open cut on his forehead, making Caboose pull back at once, as if he'd been burned. The stranger then closed his eyes, rolling over; it was only then Caboose noticed the cat in his arms, who gave Caboose a gentle meow of affection.

"Hello, Church." Caboose responded, grooming the kitty's fur kindly, to which the ocelot purred in satisfaction. "You are home now, I will keep you safe."

With that, Caboose scooped up the stranger with his right arm, still using the left to hold Tucker, and allowed the ocelot to clamber onto his open shoulder, rubbing against his cheek affectionately. Caboose grinned, something he hadn't done in a very long time, and walked on back into Blue Base, presumably to help his teammate and new friend recover.

...

Tucker blinked awake about three hours later, groaning when he found out that he could hardly move; he'd barely been caught in that damn Creeper blast, but apparently, that didn't matter, now did it? When he finally managed to sit up, he looked to his left, surprised to find a stranger in Church's old bed. Now that he was more awake and in less pain than before, Tucker was more capable of studying the man beside him. The man couldn't be older than twenty-nine or thirty, having short, gruff blonde hair, and a small scar creasing just above his eyebrow. The cat was gone, to Tucker's surprise, but a meow above him made him gaze upward, frowning at the sight.

"Dude, put him back." Tucker ordered, staring blankly at the ocelot perched on Caboose's shoulder. "He's not yours."

"But, Tucker!" Caboose whined, finally grinning at him, the cat being plucked off his shoulder and held sweetly against his chest. "It's Church!"

Tucker groaned. "Since when is Church a fucking pussy cat?" He asked aloud, rubbing his face with a bandage covered palm. "You'd better hope this guy doesn't kill you for touching his ocelot."

As if on cue, the stranger groaned aloud, blinking multiple times as he sat up, squinting at Tucker and Caboose. "Who're you?" He asked at once, voice weak from a lack of use over the last few hours.

"Who're we, who the fuck are you, dude?" Tucker asked, pouting at the older stranger with an odd glint in his eyes. "Never seen a guy like you from around here."

"That's 'cus I'm not." The man slurred out, rubbing his eyes, which were a grey/blue color that reminded Tucker briefly of a stormy day. "I'm from way up north, where the people there live in Creative Mode."

"Creative Mode?" Caboose repeated, looking confused. "What is a Creative Mode?"

Tucker shrugged. "Church talked about it sometimes, said Tex was from there or some shit."

"It's where you can never die." The stranger explained, ruffling his own hair lazily, to rid himself of his bedhead. "Also, you have unlimited resources and weapons of all sorts... all of my friends are living there."

"So, what's your name then?" Tucker finally asked, sick and tired of only thinking of him as 'Stranger'.

"Well, my friends all call me Washington or Wash." Washington told them, shrugging. "But my real name is-"

"Washingtub? Do you like baths?" Caboose interrupted, the ocelot meowing sleepily on his shoulder.

"Epsilon?" Wash asked, staring at the ocelot with wide eyes. "Wow, he must really like you; he bites and hisses at everyone else."

Caboose smiled, holding out the cat. "He is Church!" He yelled, patting the kitty's head. "He is my bestest friend!"

Wash gave Tucker a confused look.

Tucker sighed. "It's a long story." He stated, shaking his head in defeat. "So... you wanna see the rest of Blood Gulch?"

With a hesitant nod, Wash was helped to his feet by Caboose and Tucker, leaning on Tucker as the two walked out the base doors.

...

Blood Gulch wasn't really a great place to live, but it was still home to all of them. No one was really sure how anyone got there (Tucker had been traveling for as long as he could remember until he ended up here with Flowers taking care of him, Simmons had showed up with a missing arm only to have Sarge take him in and give him a new iron one, Church almost killed Tucker while hunting way far out from home and ended up living with Flowers too, Grif showed up looking for his Sister but wound up living with Simmons and Sarge, and Donut and Caboose stayed after telling them all how their farm was destroyed by a horde of Spiders).

They all stuck around for different reasons, some sweet, some ridiculous, and some just because, but they stayed in that shitty little plains biome, that had apparently glitched up somehow and closed them all in, the only way out being a thick forest that led to God knows where. But Flowers had died awhile back, not long before Caboose showed up, having accidentally eaten a Spider Eye and had died declaring Tucker as the leader. Tucker had, ultimately, handed that mantle to Church, declaring he really didn't want it.

So Church had been leader... until he left them, leaving Tucker, once again, as the leader of Blue Team.

"This place is huge." Wash exclaimed, staring at the wide canyon with curiosity in his eyes. "I've only ever lived in villages and mountains... this is gorgeous."

"We call it shit, but yeah, you can call it gorgeous or whatever." Tucker replied, watching from afar as Sarge began chopping down an oak tree. "Dude, you better replant more!" He screeched.

"Only on the Red side!" Sarge screamed back, taking all the saplings and charging back inside.

Tucker groaned. "So that's our neighbor." He muttered, shaking his head. "That was Sarge, but there's also Simmons, Grif, and Donut. PS, I think Donut's a chick."

"Why would I care?" Wash asked, raising an eyebrow. "There are plenty of chicks where I'm from."

"Dude, seriously?" Tucker asked, suddenly very interested in this guy's Creative Mode Land or wherever the fuck. "We only ever get a bunch of sweaty dudes!"

Wash only shrugged, still admiring the view. From afar, Tucker could see Sarge getting started up on something involving a Crafting Table and a shit ton of Pumpkins... this couldn't end well.

...

"Sup." Grif muttered as he trotted outside, Donut not far behind him, half of his face still wrapped in a bloody gauze. "What ya doing?"

"Simple, dirtbag." Sarge replied, grinning as he made tons upon tons of Iron Blocks. "I'm gettin' us here an army! Them Blues 're gonna have us outnumbered if we don't stop 'em! Look at 'em over there... scheming... those devilish bastards!"

Grif rolled his eyes, giving the Iron Blocks a once over. "Simmons is gonna lose it once he finds out you used all his Iron; he spent three days gathering that shit a few months back."

"He'll understand." Sarge assured Grif, finally starting on making Iron Golem after Iron Golem. "I need 'em for the war!"

"I don't even know if this is a war, Sarge." Donut said, smiling and waving at Caboose, who was playing with something he couldn't make out on the Blue's side of the canyon. "Man, I haven't seen Caboose in awhile... he must finally be getting better."

After a few minutes, Sarge ran out of Iron, only for Simmons to come trotting out of the base, staring at the Golems with impossibly wide eyes. "Sarge!" He screeched, seeing the Iron Golems picking a bunch of flowers and heading towards Blue Base. "Did you use all of our Iron!?"

"Why of course, how else would I of made so many?" Sarge asked, smirking as his little army headed across the bridge. "Look at 'em go, they're gonna rip 'em all to shreds... *sniff* I'm so proud."

"Do you even know what you've done!?" Simmons yelled, grabbing his own hair wildly, pulling at the orange tangles like a mad man.

Donut stared with wide eyes. "Wow, I've never seen Simmons that mad before."

Grif nodded in agreement, stretching as he yawned.

"I don't see the problem." Sarge replied honestly, giving Simmons a curious look. "We'll be fine; we've got an army now, see!"

"But you used all of our Iron!" Simmons shouted. "Now we'll have to get more, and we don't even have Tex to help us this time; how else are we gonna stop all of those Mobs if we don't have her to help!?"

Sarge nodded, taking it in. "I still think it's fine, Simmons." He stated, grinning as one of the Golems finally reached Washington, who still hadn't noticed it yet. "Look! Now you'll see that it was necessary in order to win the war against them dirty Blues!"

...

"Washingtub, look!" Caboose yelled, pointing at the Iron Golem behind Wash with a delighted grin, hopping up and down. "It is a friendly man!"

Wash turned around, staring up at the huge Golem towering over him. He yelped, ready to bolt, but stopped as the Iron Golem held out a tiny yellow flower, making a loud 'Clunk' as it did so, looking at Wash expectantly. Very hesitantly, the young miner grabbed the flower, the Iron Golem automatically letting go and walking back to Red Base. He stared, not knowing how to respond. Tucker immediately lost it, collapsing to the ground in a loud fit of giggles and shrieks, to which Caboose copied, not holding back at all as he fell over, landing on Wash, who instead shrieked in terrible pain rather than happiness.

"I-I-I can't breathe!"

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

*Loud Incoherent Sobbing*

...

"Hey, Sarge, want some flowers?" Simmons asked, holding out a bundle of roses out to Sarge. 'Cus, ya know, they're apparently more essential than fucking iron."

"Aw, shut up." Sarge muttered, ignoring the five Iron Golems surrounding him, all holding out a flower each.

...

Three days later and all of the Iron Golems, Blue Team, and Red Team were wearing flower crowns made by Donut; they knew better than to question it all.

...

"Do you miss them?"

Washington glanced over his shoulder from where he was sitting in front of the window, having a staring contest of sorts with a Zombie intent on staring back from the other side of the window, ignoring the rain entirely. Tucker was sat at the tiny table in the middle of the base, fiddling with a wooden sword he had made for no particular reason other than boredom. It was pouring outside, making it damn near impossible to go out seeing as every monster but Endermen were content in it, free to wander even during the usual daylight hours. Caboose was laying on the Cobblestone floor, looking to be playing with Epsilon peacefully.

"Sometimes." Wash admitted, staring back outside, watching the Zombie put his hand on his side of the window; Wash put his over it, copying the Mob. "I know they're looking for me though."

"Would you leave if they came here?" Tucker asked, staring more seriously at Wash. "Would you just grab Epsilon and go?"

It was quiet for a long time, the only sounds being the Zombie moaning, Epsilon's content meows and purrs, and the rain outdoors. Finally, Wash sighed, looking away from his sort-of-not friend Zombie, gazing deep into Tucker's sharp grey eyes.

"I might." Wash admitted, swallowing loudly. "I gave Epsilon to Caboose... he obviously needs him more... if my friends all show up one day... I dunno, I'll figure it out."

"What does that mean, Washingtub?" Caboose asked, looking up from where he was on the floor, Epsilon also glancing up at his old master.

"It means I still owe you guys." Wash stated, scratching his head in deep thought. "I'm not sure if I'm quite ready to leave either; I still wanna see more of this canyon, you know?"

"I get it." Tucker replied, nodding in understanding. "But don't worry about it if your weird Creative buddies show up, kay?"

Wash only nodded back, looking outwards, seeing the Zombie now gone; off in the distance, Simmons and Grif were tossing snowballs from God knows where at each other, screeching whenever Donut joined in and started actually injured them. Sarge was also there, grinning as he fought a few monsters, seeing as he was close enough to home and there wasn't any real danger in fighting a few. Wash smiled, mentally asking himself when he'd started loving being here so much; he still missed his friends, and really needed to get back to them before anything bad happened, but for now...

This was home.

...

"Run!"

"Oh crap!"

Both Simmons and Grif screeched as Donut chased them around in the rain, tossing snowballs at them like no man's business; not only did they do damage, but they sure as fuck stung! Sarge watched with a peaceful look in his eyes, preferring to simply watch instead of join in; he felt he was too old to be getting nearly killed by Donut's snowballs anyhow. He smiled though, slinging his sword over his shoulder as he turned towards the woods, having already killed every monster near Red Base. He looked over his shoulder at the rest of his team, watching Grif and Simmons collapse and dry-heave into the muddy ground, while Donut stood over them, apologizing endlessly.

"Hey!" Sarge yelled, catching his team's attention. "I'm headin' out for a spell, you three try not to kill each other while I'm gone, ya hear?"

"Yes, sir!" Simmons wheezed back, his knees shaking as he stood slouching, he saluted, whimpering at the pull on his muscles. "Are you sure you'll be okay?"

"Boy, who you think yer talkin' to, huh?" Sarge asked in return, waltzing off into the forest, whistling some sort of old song off-tune to himself as he went.

The old miner walked through the forest without many worries, surprised at times when the Creepers hanging about ignored him; it kinda helped when he smelled like a cat thanks to Epsilon. Sarge hurried past a few trees, stopping at a river to crotch down and have a drink, his lungs burning slightly from too much energy being used; he supposed he really was getting too old for this shit. After a minute or so of restoring a bit of his thirst, Sarge sat back on the grass, his sword resting on his lap lazily. He yawned, feeling almost like Grif, and was tempted to nap, but knew better, what with the Mobs being out and all.

Out of nowhere, however, a Skeleton ran at Sarge, managing to nick him in the arm with an arrow. The man cried out, on his feet in seconds, his sword managing to swing and slash a rib off of the Skeleton. Sarge growled, ready to attack again, only to have his sword knocked clean out of his grasp. He yelped, ducking as another few arrows soared his way. He started backing away, arrows being launched at him until he was cornered by a slope of dirt, the Skeleton blocking any way out. Sarge cursed, still ready to fight, even with his bare hands, when out of seemingly nowhere, a huge wolf launched out at the Skeleton.

The beast of a Mob pinned the Skeleton in seconds, tearing it apart. Sarge watched with wide eyes, seeing a few spare bones fall before him. He smiled, picking them up delicately as he tiptoed over to the mighty wolf, seeing it munch aggressively on the remains of the Skeleton. Now able to see it better as the rain passed, the moon taking it's place, Sarge was capable of seeing the wolf's dark brown fur clear as day, tarnished and dirty from living out in the wild. Sarge whistled, making the wolf stop and turn around, sitting and tilting his head as he saw the bones in Sarge's hand, making a soft yip as a way of begging.

"That's a good boy." Sarge praised, smirking at the animal. "Here, take it." He held the bones out to the beast carefully.

The wolf obediently took them, literally wolfing them down. With a satisfied yip, the wolf sat again in front of Sarge, tail wagging happily. "That's all I got, boy." Sarge explained, backing away. "I don't got no more."

None-the-less, the wolf stood and shook itself off, following Sarge out of the forest, much like an obedient dog would. The miner sighed, a curve to his lips as the animal followed him home; he could always use another teammate.

...

A/N: Part 2 is done!!! Loved writing this, and now Sarge has a wolf! Please like and reblog, it would be highly appreciated!

~Supercasey.


	3. Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I may or may not have decided to do more than five chapters... I'm in too deep O^O

Nether Worry

Part 3

Pairing: Agent Washington/Tucker, Caboose/Church, Grif/Simmons

Description: In which the Reds and Blues come across a lonely Creative Mode dweller, Sarge makes about ten times more Iron Golems than are strictly necessary, and where Tucker learns that Wash is indeed not a replacement for Church and that may or may not be a bad thing after all.

A/N: Sorry this took so long; I was really busy yesterday and needed to fully edit it before putting it out.

...

"What the fuck is that?” Grif asked twenty minutes later, staring down at the massive brown wolf.

Sarge glared at Grif from where he was squatted on the floor of the base, clicking a red leather collar around his new wolf’s neck. “It’s a wolf, dumbnuts.”

Simmons raised an eyebrow at the wolf, looking it over. “What’s his name, sir?” He asked, patting it’s head after a moment.

"Lopez." Sarge announced, running his fingers through the wolf’s fur kindly, smirking when it barked and wagged it’s tail.

"He’s so cute!” Donut declared, getting on his knees in front of the dog-like pet, looking him over curiously. “I can totally manicure his nails and make him look so cute! Oh man, he needs a cute little bandana around his neck, with cupcakes on it!”

"Stop torturing my dog!" Sarge yelled, hugging the wolf awkwardly, patting it’s head. "He’s not some fancy pantsy runway poodle; he’s a killing machine run on steroids and a boner for murder!”

Grif blinked, not at all intimidated by Sarge’s explanation. “He looks kinda dumb.” He commented, shrugging at the beast. “I’m more of a cat person to be honest.”

"Grif," Sarge began, Lopez growling at his side. “I’m givin’ ya ten seconds to run before I let Lopez here do whatever he wants to ya.”

That got Grif’s attention. “It’s not to offend him, I just, you know… BYE!” He burst out the door, screeched as Sarge let go of Lopez, letting the wolf go after him.

The rest of the Red Team watched as Lopez chased Grif around the canyon, barking and growling as Grif rushed towards Blue Base, barely being able to make a stairway onto the roof, breaking it once he was high enough away from the wolf. Lopez sat patiently in the wet grass, tail wagging as he tilted his head; Sarge grinned, knowing it would be a long night for Grif.

"Should we help him?" Simmons asked, giving Grif a very concerned look.

"Naw, I think Lopez has it covered." Donut replied, squinting to see better as he stared out the window beside Simmons.

"No, I mean, maybe we should help Grif,” Simmons explained, frowning at the outside world. “I mean, even he doesn’t deserve this shit.”

Sarge rolled his eyes. “Oh get over it!” He ordered, plopping onto his bed with a groan. “Jus’ go ta bed.”

Simmons sighed, walking out the door. “Where are you going, Simmons?” Donut asked, furrowing his brow as Simmons headed on outside, just as the rain started again.

Simmons didn’t reply, he only walked faster.

…

Grif was panting loudly as he laid on top Blue Base, screeching whenever a Zombie or Skeleton spawned on there with him, causing him to him kill them in a panic or at least get them off the roof to deal with Lopez, who killed them immediately. Suddenly though, he heard soft thunking, much like someone placing down something wooden. He stared with wide eyes as Simmons more or less crawled onto the roof via ladder, plopping down beside him. The maroon miner didn’t say a word as he set down two beds beside each other, setting up tons of torches around them as he did so, making a little monster-safe zone on the Blue Base roof, leaving Grif confused.

"The fuck is this?” Grif asked.

Simmons grabbed Grif’s arm, tugging him onto the double bed. “It’s called not leaving you out here all night in the rain.” He explained, setting up a tiny roof using fences and wooden planks above the bed.

Grif smirked, leaning on Simmons as the two laid down on the bed. “I always knew you digged me.” He stated matter-of-factly.

"Grif, we’ve been dating for three and a half months.” Simmons reminded the orange miner, unimpressed by the other man’s statement. “Pretty sure I digged you.”

"I know; this just means you really love me, like, enough to sleep in the rain with me." Grif explained, wrapping his arms around the other man lazily. "Night, nerd.”

"Night, fatass.” Simmons replied, yawning as he cuddled up to his boyfriend, ignoring the storm the best he could.

…

The next morning, the footsteps of a very young miner echoed through the forest, the soft ‘whoops’ of another creature following them. Eventually, Kaikaina Grif stopped, staring out upon the canyon before her with a grin, Crunchbite teleporting to join her in gazing at the canyon. The young girl giggled, grabbing her Endermen friend’s hand as she walked towards the bases inside, stopping to turn and look at him, her colorblindness being the only thing stopping the Endermen from killing her, seeing as the girl couldn’t tell what color it’s eyes were in the first place.

"I’m gonna go find Dex." Kaikaina explained, hugging Crunchbite softly. "You go find your hero or whatever; see ya soon."

The Endermen teleported away, leaving Kai alone to stare hopefully at Red Base; surely Dex would be there, he loved the color red!

…

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Washington was awake at once, jumping out of bed in a fury before he stood, Stone Sword drawn and ready for combat. Immediately, Tucker slammed the front door shut upon entering, a loud Endermen scream echoing behind him. The aqua miner was whimpering loudly, his whole body shaking nonstop as he held his Diamond Sword to his chest, as if it were a lifeline. Wash softened, seeing Tucker was okay, and walked carefully over to the much younger miner, seeing Tucker yelp aloud when the Endermen outside screamed again, making even Wash shiver; Carolina used to love telling tales of her Survival Mode adventures, including Endermen related ones.

"Tucker, what happened?" Wash asked, looking Tucker over; no injuries, must’ve been able to outrun it home.

"It saw my sword and fucking lost it, I dunno, but it’s gonna kill me!" Tucker explained, panicking wildly. "I never looked at it’s eyes, I swear."

Wash nodded, taking a deep breath as he readied his sword… just a few hits and it would be gone… he could manage it. “Stay here.” He ordered, moving past Tucker as he readied his sword. “I’ll take care of this mess.”

Before he could step out though, a loud screech interrupted him from outside, making Wash swallow, eyes going impossibly wide. That had to be Caboose, it had to be. “No, do not hurt him!”

"Caboose?" Tucker called, pressing up against the door carefully, an obvious fear still thrilling his bones. “Why the fuck not, man? That thing is evil! It is literally a spawn of Herobrine… I think.”

"He is my friend!" Caboose declared; Wash peeked out the window by the door, seeing that Caboose had his arms wrapped around the Endermen’s waist. "He is not an Endermen; he is a Friendermen!”

Washington cursed loudly, shaking his head. “Fuck.” He muttered, turning towards the roof ladder. “Tucker, wait here, I’ll be back in a few minutes… if I die and York shows up, punch him in the good eye for taking so damn long.”

Tucker nodded, watching Wash silently. “Careful, dude; those things are hardcore.”

The young Ex-Creative Mode player climbed up onto the roof, the morning sun amazingly enough not spooking the Endermen underground. He shrugged it off, but stopped as he spotted Simmons and Grif, both fast asleep on their roof, appearing to be snuggling. ‘I’ll worry about it later’, He told himself, scooting around the slumbering miners, smiling almost fondly at them as he passed by. At least some people could find happiness in this messed up world. Wash finally reached the end of the roof, where he peeked over the edge, seeing the Endermen screaming at the door as Caboose hugged him, occasionally rubbing his cheek against him to boot.

This couldn’t end well.

"Caboose!" Wash called, grabbing both the Endermen and Caboose’s attention. ‘It won’t hurt you’ He reminded himself, breathing warily, ‘It’s locked onto Tucker, not you’. “I need you to let go of him, Caboose!”

"But you will kill him!" Caboose replied, hugging his new friend tighter. Wash was surprised that the Endermen hadn’t shooed Caboose away or screamed at him to scare him off; it must’ve had amazing tolerance level. "He will not hurt people! He is a good Friendermen!"

Wash sighed, rubbing his temple as he closed his eyes, trying to cool down his initial anger towards the situation; it was fine, Caboose just wanted to help it, no harm in that. “Look, we can work something out, Caboose! It doesn’t need to be this way.” He felt like he was talking to a serial killer who was holding a child hostage.

"Do you promise?" Caboose asked, looking hopeful.

Wash smiled an honest one, nodding at the blue miner. “Of course, Caboose.”

"Pinky promise?" Caboose edged on, holding out his pinky to Wash, having to get on his tiptoes to even reach him.

For a beat, Wash considered turning him down, but the Endermen’s bright pink eyes flashed, as well as a soft and threatening low screech entering the air; great, the Endermen was on Caboose’s side, that couldn’t possibly end badly. “Pinky promise.” He confirmed, shaking pinky fingers with the younger miner.

He’d regret this, he knew that much.

…

"Who in Sam Hell are you?” Sarge boomed, glaring down from the top of Red Base at the young, yellow clad miner; she couldn’t be older than eighteen or nineteen.

"My name’s Kai!" Kaikaina explained, grinning up at the older red miner. "Hey, old guy, you seen my bro? His names Dex!"

"Get off my lawn!" Sarge replied, firing an arrow at the girl’s feet; she was unaffected. "I don’t know no Dex’s!"

Donut popped onto the roof from the ladder, giving Kai a curious look. “Who’s she, sir?” He asked, pouting at the young girl.

Sarge shrugged, reloading his bow. “I don’t know and I don’t care; she’s not from here, which means she can’t be Red, and if that tall freak she was traveling with went to Blue Base… dear Notch, they’ve called for reinforcements, those dirty Blues!”

"Hey, pinky!” Kai yelled, catching Donut’s attention. “You don’t seem like an old jerk; you seen my brother or what?”

"What’s he look like?" Donut asked. "And by the way, it’s not ‘pink’, it’s lightish red, obviously.”

Kai shrugged. “He’s kinda fat, and slow, also knowing him he’s probably figured out he’s hella gay by now; always thought he had to be. Anyways, he’s also kinda short, and Hawaiian, guess that’s important, he also hates Bats!”

Sarge and Donut only stared at each other, both with equally bored expressions on their faces. “Grif.” They deadpanned.

…

"Okay… so now that we have decided to keep you… you need a real name!" Caboose explained, smiling up at the Endermen sitting politely at their kitchen table. "I vote for Fluffy."

"Fluffy?" Wash repeated, obviously confused. “Why Fluffy?”

”Fluffy; the Friendermen who only loves!” Caboose shouted, making the Endermen almost make a groan, not at all agreeing with the miner.

Tucker was hiding under the table, not trusting that thing to be docile yet. “That’s a stupid name!” He yelled, pouting when the Endermen hissed upon hearing his voice. “Oh shut it, you’re not helping.”

Wash shrugged, sneaking a piece of toast to Tucker, seeing as they were currently having breakfast and the Endermen was making it hard for Tucker to grab some food of his own. “How about something less… demeaning?” He suggested, sipping his apple juice carefully. “How about Seattle?”

"Boo!" Tucker cheered, smacking Wash in the leg, earning a muffled yelp from the receiver. “That’s even worse!”

"Alright, smartass,” Wash replied, smirking at what he could make out of Tucker. “What do you suggest for him, huh?”

Before Tucker could quite possibly offend the Endermen and his teammates further, Kai charged in, followed by an overly cautious Sarge and a peaceful looking Donut. “Hey!” She yelled, grinning nice and wide. “You seen by bro?”

Wash set his juice down, looking Kai up and down cautiously. “First of all, who are you? Second, why in Notch’s name did you just burst into this base like a pig wearing a saddle?” He knew that second part from experience.

"What’s with all the questions?" Kai asked, squinting at Wash. "What’re you, like a cop or something?”

"I don’t even know what a cop is.” Wash pointed out, glaring right back at Kai. “I’ve never been to the city.”

"Whatever cop.” Kai replied, grinning when she saw Tucker. “Oh, is that your boyfriend?” She asked, crawling under the table to talk with him.

Wash blushed bright red, unable to deny it before Kai was down there, possibly getting into mischief. “I’m hoping you can explain this.” He said, pointing his question at Sarge.

Sarge shrugged, bow level with Wash’s head; the miner was unmoved by this. “She’s lookin’ for Grif… you seen that lazy bastard?”

"Sleeping on our roof." Wash explained, pointing his thumb in the general direction of the ladder. "Simmons is there too."

"Got it." Sarge muttered, waltzing on over to the ladder. "Come on, Donut."

Donut shook his head, seating him on the other side of the Endermen. “I think I’ll skip, Sarge; this new Blue guy is really interesting!” He explained.

Sarge only shook his head, continuing up the ladder; he’d never understand kids these days with their fancy pancy weapons and crazy obsessions with monsters and idiotic stunts.

…

"Alright, cuddle puddle is over!" Sarge announced minutes later, tugging the blanket off of Simmons and Grif, who he was happy to see were fully clothed. "Come on, up at at ‘em, miners."

"Ugh!" Grif groaned out, using his arm that wasn’t wrapped around Simmons to block out the sun efficiently. “Is that sunlight?”

"You bet yer rations it is!" Sarge yelled, grinning at the look of honest distaste on his miner’s face; it was looking to be a good day after all. "Now get yer ass up, you got a visitor."

"Better not be another Creeper, because I swear to Notch, Sarge, if you-” Grif was cut off, however, when a nineteen year old girl slammed into him like a fuck train with no breaks.

Simmons awoke with a screech, feeling someone’s cold feet smack him in the face. “Goddammit, Grif!” He yelled, squirming away and rolling off of the bed, landing on his ass. “I told you not to touch me with your cold fucking feet!”

Grif, however, was too busy being hugged and kissed on the cheek to hear him, his younger sister being more clutchy than usual. “Kai!?” He finally asked, pulling her away enough to breathe. “What’re you doing here? I told you to stay in the Mushroom biome; monsters don’t spawn there!”

"Fuck that!” Kai replied, waving her brother’s anger off like it was normal, which it probably was for her. “I got bored of mushrooms, they weren’t even the fun kind! So, I met this weird Endermen dude who offered to help me find you, and here we are!” She hugged Grif again, smiling brightly.

"Wait, what!?" Grif shouted, pulling her away again. "What Endermen? How did you get here? Where’s the cat? Wh-" He was cut off with a sharp slap from Kai to calm him down. "Thank you."

"No problem, Dex." Kai replied, patting him on the head.

"It’s not 'Dex' here, it’s Grif.” Grif explained, stepping off of the bed, Sister stepping off with him. “And we can’t call ya Kai since Sarge hates first names… guess we’ll call you Sister.”

Sister wasn’t as impressed. “That’s kinda dumb.” She pointed out, but was distracted when Tucker, Caboose, Sarge, Wash, and Donut joined them on the roof. “Hey, look, it’s Pinky, Cop, Tall Blue Guy, Old Jerk, and Pencil Dick!”

Tucker groaned. “It’s Tucker.” He repeated for what must’ve been the millionth time that morning.

Sister brushed it off. "Whatever." She grabbed Grif’s arm, leading him towards the ladder. “Man, have I got a story to tell!” She announced, leading the way in what was definitely going to be one Hell of an adventure. “You guys are gonna love it!”

…

A/N: A slightly shorter chapter than the last two, but I’m getting these out faster than I’d at first thought; working on this is really helping me out from my past writers block! Please like and comment, hope you enjoyed!

~Supercasey.


	4. Part 4

Nether Worry

Part 4

Pairing: Agent Washington/Tucker, Caboose/Church, Grif/Simmons

Description: In which the Reds and Blues come across a lonely Creative Mode dweller, Sarge makes about ten times more Iron Golems than are strictly necessary, and where Tucker learns that Wash is indeed not a replacement for Church and that may or may not be a bad thing after all.

 

"Wait wait wait, so you're telling us... you swam all the way from a huge mushroom island, hitched a ride with some horse owner who you later fucked, lasted ten days in a desert without any food what-so-ever, met an Endermen who you could magically understand who wouldn't kill you because you're color blind, went on a huge month long adventure through underground caves, then popped up in a village, fucked half the villagers, and ended up in Blood Gulch!?" Wash asked, looking Sister up and down carefully.

"Yep, pretty neat, huh?" Sister asked, grinning happily as she sat on one of the beds in Blue Base. "It was, like, so boring underground though; everybody kept getting up in my face like 'I'm a Skeleton'. It's like, yeah, I'm kinda aware of that, thanks; then I'd shiv them with my Hoe-."

"Wait, what!?" Simmons squeaked out, eyes wide, mouth agape as he stared at the girl who could not possibly be related to his fatass boyfriend.

"Yeah, right? Those guys were such assholes!" Sister stated matter-of-factly, nodding to the miners surrounding her. "But I'm okay; Crunchbite got into a few scraps, but no biggie."

Grif groaned, shaking his head. "Great, just great; my sister is in the middle of what is most likely the worst place on Earth and I can't do shit about it. I told you to stay on the island, Kai!"

Sister rolled her eyes, glaring at Grif. "But you never came back, Dex! Look, I waited for a long time, and nobody ever showed up; I had to eat the cows there, Grif. Those cows only tasted like mushrooms; everything tasted like shitty mushrooms! So I did what I had to do, you can at least act like you missed me!"

"Of course I did; I was worried sick, but I couldn't just up and leave!" Grif sighed, looking away from his younger sister. "Look, I'm sorry I kinda ditched you, but I kinda... got attached to people here; it's complicated. Anyway, I'm glad you're safe, I can sleep easier now-"

"You had trouble sleeping?" Donut questioned, not looking convinced. "You were out in ten seconds almost every night!"

Sister gasped, suddenly tackle-hugging Grif, grinning as she did so. "You did miss me!" She squealed, laughing loudly. "You never take that long to fall asleep at night!"

Sarge stared, looking both amused and angry. "I have no idea what I'm even lookin' at anymore." He stated, turning towards the door. "Come on, men. Grif, grab yer sister and let's skedaddle!"

Grif nodded, grasping Sister's arm. "Come on, Kai." He ordered, heading for the door at a faster pace than usual.

"Wait..." Sister forced Grif to let go, backing away to stand beside the Blues. "Maybe I could... stay here?" She suggested.

"Wait, what!?" Both Washington and Sarge yelled at the same time, staring at the hazel haired girl wildly.

"Well, Red Team's already got a ton of dudes..." Sister trailed off again.

"We literally have an always tired fatass, an unappreciated genius, a possibly insane ex-underground miner nutcase, the most girly man on Earth who we're still betting is gay as fuck, and a brown wolf demon bent on killing everybody but Sarge, but I still think that thing might go traitor on him soon." Simmons explained, looking his own team over as he spoke. "Why would you join Blue Team?"

"Because we have a psychopath Creative Mode cat-lover, a complete idiot who's never once died, an amazingly attractive warrior, and a cat who hates everyone. You have one more guy than us." Tucker pointed out, crossing his arms. "Besides, Donut is already the girl for your team."

Sarge glared at Tucker, re-loading his bow. "You'll be down another if ya don't release the prisoner!"

"What prisoner!?" Wash screeched, his voice going up an octave. "I'm not even sure if anyone here is sane anymore; let's all just drop it and vote!"

"But they'll all vote for Sister to join them!" Tucker yelled.

"Epsilon can't vote though..." Donut stated.

"Well neither can your freak demon dog!" Sister yelled, hands on her hips.

Caboose tisked at them all. "Not very Democratic..." He said, looking disappointed. "Everybody has the right to vote; it is the law."

"Maybe on the moon it is!" Tucker screamed, seeing as he could barely be heard over the continued arguing of Red Team.

"Everyone just calm down!" Wash yelled, but his yelling was unheard in the chaos of Blue Base, especially as arrows started being shot through the air. "Fuck, watch it!"

"Give her up!" Sarge ordered, yanking out his sword and jumping Wash, getting ready to kill him.

Tucker immediately tackled Sarge, his Diamond Sword swinging. "Get off of him, dumbass! He only has two lives left!"

"Stay outta this you-"

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Everyone went still, shivering so violently that their heads hurt. Sister was the first to look up (The only one) at Crunchbite, giving him an honestly sorry look. "Okay... okay, let's all calm it..." She suggested, backing off from Donut and the rest of Red Team.

The Reds and Blues were all sprawled out wildly; Wash was still flat on his back on the floor, Simmons was looking ready to stab Caboose with Grif's help, Caboose was holding up both Grif and Simmons by the back's of their chest armor, Donut and Sister looked ready to start sword fighting, and Tucker had Sarge pinned to the floor with a Diamond Sword at his throat. They all separated slowly, mumbling apologizes and small threats, until they were all on separate ends of the room, Red versus Blue once more. Crunchbite was staring down at them all, looking ready to murder at even the slightest provocation. Wash was the first to speak, seeing as he was the least belonging to the Reds and Blues (Besides Sister).

"I think that's enough." Wash said, breathing heavily still, adrenaline running sharply through his veins. "We need to stop before someone gets hurt."

"Fine." Sarge snapped it out so bitterly... the next few days would be tense for sure.

"I'm staying here." Sister stated, looping an arm around Crunchbite. "And so is he; he's got shit to do and all that."

Grif looked ready to protest, but a tiny growl/hiss stopped him, making him back away a step. "Alright then... but you keep outta fights, okay?"

"Can't promise that." Sister replied, a smile appearing on her face again; it brought in a little more sunlight, bleeding away alot of the tension.

Tucker grinned, grabbing Sister's arm somewhat gently and pulling her closer to himself. "Don't worry baby, I'll protect you."

"Yeah, that's what the last guy said, and I'm still scratching!" Sister explained excitedly, no shame what-so-ever.

"Wait, what?" Tucker asked, but could only laugh with Sister as she began to, holding his sides as he did so.

Wash watched, just a bit of jealousy filling his head; why should he even be jealous, it's not like he'd like to make Tucker laugh that way! No, he wasn't jealous, he didn't care at all; he was supposed to just make himself useful until his friends found him... no need to get attached or anything. The grey miner walked away slowly, after the Reds had left, and kept to himself that day with the excuse of hunting.

He wasn't jealous.

He didn't care.

...

Sister and Tucker started going at it after three days.

Washington pretended he didn't notice.

...

"Hey, cop guy!" Sister yelled a few days later, walking up to Wash.

Washington had been practicing his bow and arrow skills that morning when Sister showed up, to which he began ignoring her once again, pretending he hadn't even heard her. "Oh come on, cop! What did I do to you?" Sister asked, looking the man over. "Did I piss you off or something?"

"Why'd you join Blue Team?" Wash asked suddenly, not looking up from where he was fixing up a few arrows. "Your brother is on Red Team; seems only reasonable that you'd join him."

"Well... it's complicated; sibling stuff, ya know?" Sister explained, taking a seat on a dirt block beside Wash, watching what he was doing from over his shoulder. "Besides... pretty sure none of the guys on Red Team are exactly great fuck-buddies; the old guy is old and gross, my bro is dating that one nerd guy, pinky is kinda... well I'm not gonna even ask, and then there's a dog."

Wash nodded, eyes fixated on the ground; if Carolina or Maine were around, they'd accuse him of being childish. "I guess I could understand that." He muttered aloud, finally looking up at Sister, grey/blue eyes meeting bright browns. "I have a sister of my own."

Sister was suddenly laying on her stomach on the block, eyes trained on Wash. "Oooooooooooh, gossip, hm?"

"No," Wash replied, stuffing the now fixed arrows away into his inventory. "It's not gossip, it's just... my sister."

"Older or younger?" Sister asked, smiling as she pulled out bread from her own inventory, tossing a piece to Wash.

Wash caught the bread with ease, taking a small bite, copying after Sister. "Older." He stated, sighing around his snack. "Her name is Carol."

"That's a cute name, is she hot?" Sister asked at once; right to the point it seemed.

"She's too old for you; also, she's already in a relationship with one of our other friends." Wash explained, finishing quickly, taking a seat beside Sister.

"Boo," Sister muttered sadly, staring at the ground. "So... where is she now? She still around or is she dead?"

Wash shrugged, looking away. "No idea," He admitted, sighing deeply. "I got separated from my friends a few months ago... I still have no idea where the Hell they even are."

"Why don't you go find them?" Sister questioned. "I mean, that's what I did, and I even found my bro!"

"Well, it's not that simple." Wash said, sitting up slightly. "You see, I'm from Creative Mode; people in Creative Mode are more or less invincible to everything, but... I turned mine off. I'm not sure how my friend Wyoming managed it, but he helped me turn it off, just like he did when Florida wanted to travel the world as a free spirit. Anyway, I was only doing it to get an Achievement... but I got killed, so now I only have two lives left and my friends are probably looking everywhere for me." He looked away, his brow furrowing. "Sorry if I'm talking too much..."

Sister was quiet for a long time, legs swinging as she hummed, Wash not saying a word as she did so. Finally, Sister spoke up, this time with a gentleness in her voice. "Sorry I started fucking Tucker."

Wash's eyes went wide, looking Sister over, as if she were a Zombie or something. "Wait, what?"

"Sorry I'm fucking the guy you're into." Sister repeated, smiling honestly at the much older man. "I just wanted to be with someone I guess; I'll back off if you want."

"Uh..." Wash couldn't really come up with a reply to that, seeing as he was still trying to figure out how Sister had known in the first place. "You don't... I guess-"

"Dude," Sister interrupted, placing her hand securely over Wash's mouth. "I get it, you're still all-" She waved her hands in the air a bit, trying not to laugh. "-Figuring it out. I'll still back off a bit though... you know, give you some room to make a move."

Wash nodded, a pleasant sigh leaving his mouth for once. "Thanks, I guess." He replied, scratching the back of his head.

Sister patted him on the back, still smiling. "No problem, dude. No problem."

...

Tucker and Sister stopped having sex; nothing changed besides a lack of noise at night and kisses in the morning.

Wash pretended he didn't feel guilty when Tucker seemed sadder.

...

"You're leaving?" Wash asked.

A half month had passed, when things were finally calm again, when Tucker has been spending less time with Kai, when Lopez stopped growling all night at Grif, when Kai and Grif seemed to get over their old arguments; things were finally not exploding or going wrong, just the way Wash liked them. Tucker had a backpack on, Caboose chattering endlessly behind him to Sister and Crunchbite about something involving parties and wizards. The darker skinned man looked almost... regretful, yet a bit excited.

"Only for a bit." He promised, securing his pack more. "I'd bring you, but I'm not risking your life in some sorta adventure."

Wash nodded, pretending that his lack of lives didn't bother him. "It'll only be a little while, right?"

"Of course," Tucker said, as if Wash should've known that from minute one. "I'm not gonna be an asshole and not come back."

"I know," Wash assured Tucker, nodding at the ground. "I'm just worried is all, not like you have unlimited lives or anything."

"Dude," The way Tucker said it implied to Wash that he was about to be sarcastic. "We're bringing Caboose, the same moron whose never lost a life before; we'll be fine."

Wash only nodded, keeping his eyes on the floor before glancing back up, smiling a bit. "See you when you get back then..."

Tucker smiled, nodding back at Wash. "It'll only be a few weeks at the most; I just gotta go be some big hero to the Endermen or something, then I'll be back!"

None-the-less, Wash doubted Tucker would be fine upon getting back, but then again, he doubted alot of things.

'Tucker will be fine', Wash assured himself, sighing deeply, 'He's an adult, he'll be okay.'

...

It was quiet at Blue Base, deathly so.

Wash stayed at Red Base after three days; Sarge pretended he minded.

...

"They should've come back by now." Washington muttered one morning, staring out the window, as he usually did in the mornings. "They could've gotten killed out there."

"Calm down, Romeo." Grif replied, laying back in his chair at the table, feet propped up. "Sarge promised he'd yell if he saw them coming, just... I dunno, relax I guess, if that's even possible for you..."

"I can assure you, it is." Wash explained, turning away from the window, sighing deeply. "I just worry alot; 'Lina used to say that I'd get gray hair if I kept it up."

"Who the fuck is 'Lina?" Grif asked, sitting up, feet smacking the wooden floor with an audible 'thump'. "She one of your Creative Mode pals?"

Wash nodded, pushing his leftover breakfast to Grif, if only to insure the other would stay. "Yeah, she's the oldest out of us, except maybe Maine, but... we don't have proof? I dunno, it's complicated; Maine is a giant yet he might only be barely older than me and 'Lina is the oldest, that's all I know."

Grif hummed, munching on the bread and apple Wash had given him. "They seem nice; you talk about those two alot, but what about those other guys, what're they like?"

Wash shrugged, putting his feet up on the table, much like Grif had done. "Well, there are a few other guys... there's Connie, North, South, Wyoming, Florida, York... I think that's everyone. Wait, right, there's also 479er, but she's been traveling lately but pops by often enough."

"They seem cool." Grif stated.

"They're good people." Wash agreed, rocking his chair a bit, biting his lip whenever he wobbled a little too much. "Sure they're having a blast wherever they are..."

Grif nodded in agreement. "I'm sure they're looking for ya, they're just... late I guess, kinda like Sister. I mean, you remember that one time you told Sister that that 'Lina chick was your sis?"

"Ye- wait, how-"

"It's a sibling thing." Grif promised, waving the other man off quickly. "Well, if she's as over-protective as me or my sister, she's been busting her ass looking for ya, so be fucking patient."

Wash stared at Grif, then nodded, sighing to himself. "I still wish I knew how they were doing though, it's still kinda weird not knowing if they're okay or not."

"Well-" Grif was cut off, suddenly grinning as he stared behind Wash, out the window. "Dude... Wash, turn around."

"Why?" Wash asked, raising an eyebrow at Grif curiously. "What's behind me? Is it Simmons? Are you guys trying to prank me again?"

Grif shook his head, still smirking. "No way, just look!"

With a roll of his eyes, Wash looked behind himself, eyes widening as he saw Tucker on the other side of the window, grinning wide at the gray miner. Wash yelped as he fell out of his chair in an attempt to run to the window, flailing on the floor before standing, facing the window. Tucker put his hand on the window, Wash putting his over Tucker's, both laughing their asses off at the inside joke. Grif chuckled behind him, but Wash ignored the orange miner, instead, he broke the window, mentally noting to fix it later, and crawled out the small space, laughing as Tucker yanking him the rest of the way out, hugging the older man.

"Told you I'd be back." Tucker muttered, chuckling against Wash's neck. "I bet you were all depressed without me around."

"As if!" Wash yelled, smacking Tucker on the head, internally reminding himself to pay off the Reds somehow to keep quiet about his minor depression. "How was the quest?"

Tucker deflated a bit, groaning. "Boring as fuck!" He told Wash, shaking his head. "We hardly did anything but walk a million miles, Hell, I didn't even lose a life!"

"How is that a bad thing?" Wash asked, grabbing Tucker and leading him towards Blue Base. "Come on, you can tell me all about it."

...

A/N: Next chapter will mostly be about how Tucker, Caboose, Crunchbite, Epsilon, and Sister's adventure went over! Thanks for reading!

~Supercasey.


	5. Part 5

Nether Worry

Part 5

Pairing: Agent Washington/Tucker, Caboose/Church, Grif/Simmons

Description: In which the Reds and Blues come across a lonely Creative Mode dweller, Sarge makes about ten times more Iron Golems than are strictly necessary, and where Tucker learns that Wash is indeed not a replacement for Church and that may or may not be a bad thing after all.

 

Three miners, a cat, and an Endermen all trudged silently through the large Field biome, and by silently, we of course mean loudly. Crunchbite seemed to be rather busy explaining something to Sister, who in return tried to keep up in listening to his scrambled words that must’ve somehow been called a language in his culture, Caboose was chatting idly to himself about something involving how Simmons would be jealous of his ‘Real Life’ role playing game adventure, Tucker was hanging off in the back looking bored as all Hell, and Epsilon had his ears folded downwards as he trotted beside Caboose, looking to be ignoring the blue miner. Suddenly, Sister stopped, making everyone behind her catch up before she turned around, smiling.

"Hey, so, Crunchbite’s been telling me everything we might encounter. The legend’s pretty old, but the details are pretty clear." Sister explained simply, nodding sideways at Crunchbite.

"Um, Miss Church’s Sister?" Caboose asked, holding up his hand like a school student, brow furrowed in worry. "Will we be killing anybody on our adventure?"

Tucker gave Caboose an almost exasperated look. “Dude, this is the world of… whatever; there are always gonna be monsters to kill.”

"Yes, but will we encounter a Warlock?” Caboose questioned, as if he were asking of God’s whereabouts. “I do not have enough potions to fight one yet; we need to find more loot, and more dice.”

Sister nodded, grinning at Caboose. “You got it, man!” She promised, giving him a thumbs up. “I promise you if we find any, you get first dibs!”

Caboose seemed pleased with that, giving Tucker another chance to speak. “So, why did we stop again? Are we finally here?”

Sister shook her head, pointing behind herself. “These are the Great Burning Plains.” She explained, pulling out her map. “According to Crunchbite, we’re supposed to fight some sorta monster here…”

”Burning Plains? They do not look on fire… only burnt.” Caboose stated, giving the field a very unimpressed look.

Sister shrugged nonchalantly. “Eh, blame God, that’s what I always say when shit doesn’t make sense, like when Chickens look like Ducks.”

"Wait, a monster?” Tucker asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion. “It’s broad daylight; nothing can spawn in daylight… ‘cept you, Crunch.”

"It’s a special kinda monster; regular ones aren’t important enough in this to actually be the villain or whatever." Sister told them, stuffing her map away to pull out a strange soot colored skull. "This is a Wither Skull."

Tucker gave it an odd look, accepting it whenever Sister handed it to him. “What’s a Wither Skull? It some sorta burned Skeleton?”

"Kinda," Sister explained, taking it back as she looked over it almost fondly. "The lure behind them is kinda sketchy-"

"-Sketchy like my last marriage, bow chicka bow wow!"

Sister laughed outright, shook her head, then continued on in her explanation. “Anyway, these Wither dudes are kinda… sketchy, like I mentioned. No one’s really sure how they came around. Just think of them as that one dude at the frat party that nobody knows but doesn’t have the heart to kick out.”

Caboose seemed even more confused. “Ya know, maybe we do not have the full picture; maybe they are simply misunderstood creatures who only seek to find an end to their never ending torment by ripping away the lives of those around them, when in actuality they crave the love and affection they so rightly deserve… or they just showed up like flowers in a 12w36a update.”

Everyone simply stared at Caboose, not knowing how to react. “… So anyway, we’re gonna summon a Wither.” Sister deadpanned.

"Wait, what!?” Tucker yelled, hands immediately clamping onto his helmet in fear. “We don’t even know what it is!”

”Yeah, that’s what makes it fun!” Sister explained, setting up a few strange sand-like blocks that Tucker didn’t recognize, as well as three Wither skulls on it. “Better run, bitch!”

The party did not need to be told twice.

In a matter of seconds, a strange snake-like mob with purely white eyes appeared, flashing white as it began to recharge it’s health. Tucker immediately went running, attempting to get as far away from that fucking monstrosity as he could, pulling out his sword as he ducked into a tiny trench. In a matter of minutes, loud explosions filled the air, followed by a screaming Caboose and a hissing Epsilon crashing into the trench beside Tucker, eyes wide and probably scarred for life. The darker man whimpered, mentally telling himself to get Sister back for this one.

"Oh, yeah, Crunchbite says it can’t get hurt from Lava!" Sister suddenly shouted, making another explosion follow. "Hey, watch it, asshole!”

In a rare moment of courage (Maybe only caused because Tucker knew Sister only had a Golden Hoe for a weapon), Tucker flipped out of the trench, eyes wide as he got a much better look at the creature. It was now tinted a strangely bluer color, eyes still terrifyingly white, and it immediately whooshed around, as if staring into Tucker’s soul. The man froze, adrenaline not yet taking over his limbs, and he almost considered running. He suddenly held his ground, angling his feet to dodge when ready as he prepared his sword, glaring heatedly at the Wither. It opened it’s mouth, a blue skull in it slowly forming; time seemed to slow down, Tucker planning his next attack carefully.

"Yo, bitch!" Tucker shouted, just as the Wither blasted the Wither Skull at him. "Batter up!”

The teal miner swung the sword just right, back-firing the skull to bounce off his sword and smash straight into the Wither, causing a mind numbing explosion. Tucker was tossed away, his time briefly flying through the air reminding him of the night he ‘met’ Wash (More like saw him unconscious) before landing roughly a few feet away. The man groaned loudly, much like a Zombie, and squirmed on the ground, his head killing him before a much worse pain took over and shook his body violently. Sister, Crunchbite, Epsilon, and Caboose soon towered above him, their voices muted as they talked, mouths moving but nothing registering to the downed miner,

Just before Tucker passed out, he could’ve sworn someone had said something about ‘Catching Wither’, but he couldn’t be sure.

…

"Holy shit, is he gonna die?"

"Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

"Oh, so is he gonna be 'Undead'? That would be awesome!”

"Scree scree scree!"

"Ugh, you are just no fun, man! I swear, we gotta get you capital ‘L’ laid! I mean, maybe it’ll force that fucking pole outta your ass, ya know?”

"Scree scree scree scree!"

"Oh, well, sorry then, didn’t know that was so offensive to ya… wait, I think he’s waking up!”

Tucker opened his eyes with a slight hiss, regretting it almost immediately, everything still a blurry mass of pain tingling like ice sickles through his nervous system. “Oh… what happened?” He moaned out, squinting at Sister. “Am I dead? ‘Cus I always wanted to bone an angel, bow chicka-“

”Tucker!” Caboose shouted, suddenly way too close into his line of vision. “You are not dead, that is a relief, I was worried I would have to go home but you would not be there… it would be sad.”

"Naw, I’m fine, man." Tucker mumbled, trying to sit up, giving up halfway and going limp on the ground. "Fuck it, I’m not fine, you should be worried."

Sister nodded in agreement, exchanging a few garbled whispers with Crunchbite. “You’re not gonna die… we think.”

"You think!?” Tucker questioned, jolting up at once, eyes wide, before collapsing again, seeing as Epsilon had decided to plop down heavily on his probably cracked ribs. “What did that thing do to me?”

"Calm down, you only caught Wither." Sister explained, shrugging it off. "The most it’ll do is give you heart failure, destroy your lungs, ruin your social life, and terminate your sex appeal."

"What’s the least it can do?" Tucker begged to know.

Sister shrugged, looking not nearly as concerned as she should. “I dunno, brain damage?”

”Great.” Tucker muttered, glaring at the sky as he crossed his arms, ignoring the way Crunchbite glared at him for looking him in the eyes. “Shut up, you’re the one who dragged me into this shit.”

Caboose suddenly scooped Tucker up, tossing him onto his back. “I will carry you to your destiny, Tucker! You can count on me… I have always wanted to be a pony, or, a cowboy.”

Tucker squirmed, but to no avail. “Put me down, dumbass!” He ordered, but Caboose ignored him, following Crunchbite and Sister with a smile.

Epsilon almost grinned at Tucker as he scuttled behind his master, an evil glint in his eyes. “Fuck you, Epsilon.” Tucker muttered, sighing before passing out awhile later.

…

"Kay, so, Crunchbite says it’s okay to rest here." Sister announced hours later, taking a seat in the grassy clearing of the forest. "We should get there by tomorrow or the day after."

”Awesome,” Tucker muttered sarcastically, collapsing on the ground after Caboose released his hold on him. “Can’t wait to see what else wants to pound me in the ass-“

"Hey chicka bump bump!" Caboose interrupted excitedly. "Yes, now I am the lady killer of the party… I hope I do not lose experience for changing my class.”

"Shut the fuck up, Caboose." Tucker ordered, not at all fazed that he was sprawled out face first in the dirt. "Wake me if you need me, bitches." With that, he was out cold.

"Um, miss Sister?" Caboose asked, holding up his hand in question like he had done weeks ago. "Will Tucker die?"

Sister shrugged in response. “I dunno, but I think that Wither shit wore off on him a few days ago.”

Caboose shook his head. “No, I do not mean the icky Zombie disease, I want to know if Tucker shall die or not.”

"Dude, I’m still not sure on the details; we’re getting way farther in our quest than those before us according to Crunchy over here." Sister explained, pointing her thumb towards where Crunchbite was looming suspiciously over Tucker.

"Mr. Friendermen?" Caboose called out, giving Crunchbite a very worried look. "Why are you looking at Tucker all weird?"

Sister, seeming to notice this, swung around, raising an eyebrow at Crunchbite. “Dude, you okay, man? You’re kinda… breathing all heavy and shit.”

Crunchbite didn’t break eye-contact with Tucker’s unconscious form for a few minutes before looking up, blinking very slowly, before teleporting away, screeching something to Kai. “Alright, man… that was fucking weird; Crunchbite is usually such a chill dude.” Sister explained, looking worried as she faced the campfire she had just made. “I think he’s not telling me something, but I’m not sure what it is…”

Caboose nodded, standing up to plop down beside Sister, hugging her close. “I shall tell you all of the important things that I know… you do not need to be sad, Church’s Sister.”

Sister chuckled, leaning into Caboose’s hold on her person. “That’s why I love you, Caboose. You’re either a big sweetie who always tells the truth, or you just don’t understand what it is we’re talking about… guess that’s why we get along so well.”

"You are very smart, Sister." Caboose stated, as if this were a very important and well-known fact. "You are not dumb."

"Thanks," Sister muttered back, closing her eyes heavily as she leaned on Caboose, falling asleep before Crunchbite could pop back up.

Minutes after Caboose and Sister had fallen asleep, Crunchbite popped back to the camp, setting down a melon block before turning to Tucker, seeing that his moment of opportunity was in his grasp. Double checking to make sure Sister and Caboose were fast asleep, Crunchbite loomed over Tucker, looking the miner over with steady eyes.

It would be a long night for Crunchbite.

…

The next morning, Tucker groaned awake. The first thing he realized was how damn cold it was. He sat up, whimpering slightly as a wave of aches exploded from his nether regions. He shook himself violently, standing up on legs that felt like jelly, before looking over the campsite carefully. Sister, Caboose, and Epsilon were curled up beside the fire, a blanket having been wrapped securely around them all, which Tucker figured was Crunchbite’s handy work; he did seem to have a soft spot for the yellow miner. Speaking of Crunchbite, he was wide awake and sitting in front of the campfire, which had gone out hours ago, messing with a small rose he had found.

"Yo," Tucker greeted, plopping down beside Crunchbite, biting his lip as another ache echoed through his nervous system. "Fuck, I haven’t been this sore since that bachelorette party in that snow biome. Bow chicka bow wow.”

Crunchbite didn’t look impressed, turning to stare at Tucker, face neutral.

"Come on, man. These are the jokes." Tucker deadpanned, pouting at the ground. "Where were you last night?"

Crunchbite didn’t answer, teleporting to stand over Caboose and Sister, shaking them awake. “Fine, whatever, forget I asked.” Tucker muttered, smiling however as his teammates finally stood up.

The two miners shook off their remaining fatigue, Sister giving Tucker a once over. “Dude, you look like a fucking wreck.” She pointed out, eyes wide. “You okay?”

"Just sore." Tucker explained. "But I mean, if your mom can handle it, then so can I, bow chicka bow wow."

”Whatever,” Sister replied, smiling wide as she tossed her backpack back on, nodding towards one end of the clearing. “Come on, let’s go!”

Hours passed in slow motion it seemed as the party trudged on, all just wanting this quest to end, some more than others. Tucker hanged back again in the group, Epsilon chilling out on his shoulder somewhat peacefully. Caboose was taking the lead, grinning and singing something way off tune as their traveling song, claiming that it was a spell he was using to help time go faster as they traveled. Tucker didn’t believe a word of it, but, whatever, he would let Caboose have his fun for as long as he wanted. Sister and Crunchbite were around the middle, but closer to Tucker in distance, and, like they had been for days, were speaking in a language Sister insisted to Tucker was ‘Endessee’.

It was interesting enough; maybe Sister would teach him some time.

”Stop!” Sister suddenly screamed in very real English at a very loud volume. “We got trouble soon!”

Tucker rolled his eyes, catching up to the rest of his party. “What the fuck is it now? If it’s another Wither, I’m gonna kill myself so I can just go home.”

Sister shook her head, signaling for everyone to get down, Crunchbite whispering some sorta explanation to her for why. “Get down. Sorry, he just wants a moment to chill before the quest fails and we all die…” Crunchbite glared full force at Sister. “Oh, uh, sorry, wasn’t supposed to translate that last bit… um, stick to the plan, everyone is gonna be just fine!”

"Um, what was the plan again?" Caboose asked.

"It’s simply; don’t die while we wait for Tucker to basically be Jesus and light the holy grail… or in this case, slash a keyhole with his magical key sword."

"It’s a key!?” Tucker questioned, looking at the sword as if it had disgraced his entire family. “But… I found it in a hole once with Tex…”

”Really? I’ve never found anything that badass in a hole, and I’ve fucked just about every hole you can think of!” Sister explained, eyes wide.

"Yeah… wait, what?” Tucker asked, but stopped as he heard a hiss nearby. “Creepers.” He whispered in a startled tone, getting lower on the ground in fear. “Motherfuck.”

Sister nodded, suddenly jumping up. “Charge!” She shouted, bursting over the hill, where a large village with nothing but Creepers living in it resided. “Go get ‘em, Tuck!”

Tucker screeched, much like an Endermen, and ran wildly towards… well, Sister seemed like the safest option, seeing as he had zero idea where this keyhole or whatever was. He dodged Creepers with amazing skill as he rushed them, not bothering to pick a fight; he’d be dead in seconds if he risked such a war. The teal miner finally managed to find Kai, who had ducked into a large chasm under the village, where a button laid just waiting to be pushed, a long line of redstone trailing from the button towards the darkness of the caverns. Sister nodded proudly at Tucker as he joined her.

"Tucker, glad to see ya made it!" Sister greeted, nodding towards the button once more. "Kay, so here’s the mission; just slash that button with your blade and we can go home."

"Wait, that’s it? That’s what we’ve been traveling for, like, half a month for!? To push a fucking button with a sword!?” Tucker screamed, glaring at the terrible button. “No one could wait for something to just step on it?”

"Well, only the sword can turn it on." Sister explained, smiling at Tucker hopefully. "Come on, just push it and we’ll go."

Tucker sighed, rolling his eyes before tiptoeing over to the button, slashing it and jumping back upon contact. “There. Happy?”

A loud screech soon filled the air, Crunchbite teleporting into the cavern and throwing Sister and Tucker back, taking the strange sand-colored block from a pedestal that had risen from the button pushing, and disappeared in a puff of purple light, brighter and more violent sounding than an Endermen’s usual teleporting sound. Caboose suddenly hopped into the cavern, Epsilon smiling proudly at the group as it’s tail swished behind Caboose’s head, coming to wrap itself gently around the blue miner’s neck.

”Hello!” Caboose greeted at once, waving at his teammates. “The Creepers all went away… Church made them scared. Hey, where is Crunchbite?”

Tucker stared at Caboose before shaking his head, eyes distraught. Meanwhile, Sister started running around the caverns, frantically searching. “Crunchbite! Crunchbite!” She called out, looking close to tears. “Come on, man! This isn’t funny anymore!”

Caboose looked away as well, unable to stare as Sister continued searching wildly for something that wasn’t even there. “Come on, Crunch! We… we were gonna go on more adventures… we… we were gonna help you find a girlfriend…” She stared at the ground, coughing in an attempt to keep the tears from rolling down her cheeks. “You were my best friend…”

No one said a word for a very long time after that, but all agreed on one thing-

Crunchbite was gone; wherever he was, it wasn’t on Earth, and whether they tried to ignore it or not…

It hurt like Hell.

…

A/N: Sad ending to this chapter, but the next one has Freelancers so it should be happier than this (Bet that’s the first time the Freelancers have been happier than the BGC in any story). Thanks for reading!

~Supercasey.


	6. Part 6

Nether Worry

Part 6

Pairing: Agent Washington/Tucker, Caboose/Church, Grif/Simmons

Description: In which the Reds and Blues come across a lonely Creative Mode dweller, Sarge makes about ten times more Iron Golems than are strictly necessary, and where Tucker learns that Wash is indeed not a replacement for Church and that may or may not be a bad thing after all.

 

"Whelp, we’re lost as fuck." York stated matter-of-factly, looking around the large and expansive forest carefully. "I can’t find him anywhere."

"That ‘cus he wouldn’t be sleeping right in the open, fucknut." South explained, squinting into the brush with distaste. "I’m gonna kill the fucker who gave Wash the bright idea to turn his Creative off."

"Yeah… what a wanker…" Wyoming muttered, sweating nervously from the back of the group. "Can’t think of who would do such a thing…"

"Alright guys, huddle up!" Carolina yelled from the top of a dirt tower she had made. "I got an important announcement to make."

"Did you find Wash, are we gonna beat the shit outta him with Wooden Swords?" Connie asked, looking eager to find her comrade. "I’m gonna kill that fucker whenever I find him…"

"Calm down there, champ," North instructed, rubbing Connie’s back in soothing circles. "We’re all upset with him, but we don’t need to kill him."

Connie, along with everyone else, didn’t seem to agree. “Alright, so I think I know where Wash might actually be.” Carolina explained, yanking out her map, ignoring the unconvinced looks. “I got word from a villager that they know of a village way down south called Clayville,” She tucked the map away, looking hopeful. “If we’re lucky, he’ll be there, if we’re not… we’ll just have to keep looking.”

Maine growled something intangible to most, but Carolina was capable of getting the gist of it. “Hey, I get it, things are kinda sucky since we left Creative to find him-“

"-I died because North was being a donkey ass!" South interrupted.

"Yes, we know, South." Carolina said, shaking her head as she rubbed at her temple, internally counting to ten.

"We also know you didn’t set your map coordinates." North added, earning a hard slap to the forehead via South, and a chuckle via York.

"Everybody, shut the fuck up!" Carolina ordered, growling as Maine seemed to grumble out a tiny chuckle-like reaction to her outburst. "Look, we got a lead, it’s better than nothing, right?"

Connie nodded, smiling up at Carolina as she tossed one of her knives offhandedly to herself. “Right. And if we stay together, and work as a team, we’ll find Wash in no time.”

York grinned, nodding his own agreement. “Then we’ll go home, turn back on our Creative, and pretend none of this shit ever happened.”

"But… we’ll get that Pigs Fly achievement first…" Carolina stated, staring at the ground, refusing eye-contact.

"Why the shit would we do that!? I’m pretty sure Wash’s crappy reenactment of Dumbo taught us it was a shit idea." South explained, earning a few ‘yeps’ and nods as a result.

"Look, I’m not about to be outdone by Wash." Carolina explained, sighing as she walked towards where the villager had pointed earlier. "Come on, let’s just go find that little dumbass before he gets himself killed off."

…

"Is this supposed to be a High Hills biome or whatever?"

"Yeah, Carolina. Pretty sure the giant fuck-off hills explain that."

"Shut up, South."

The Freelancers all walked through the hills biome carefully as night loomed awake, it’s starry night rising at an explicable rate. All of them were worn out, even Carolina, who was barely keeping awake as it was. Maine was carrying a resting Connie on his back, York was being more or less dragged by the Dakota Twins, and Wyoming was trudging in the back by his lonesome. Seeing Wyoming acting so distant reminded Carolina loosely of when Florida was around, back when none of them had even heard of Survival Mode and had lived pretty decent lives, working with a man named The Director who had them play fun games he called ‘Let’s Plays’. They were all in good fun, but lately… Carolina would rather not think about it.

They had, however, all left without much warning after Washington got hurt, leaving a sign that simply read ‘Be back soon, gotta regroup’. Carolina had hoped that the Director would think they were going after Florida, which was acceptable, after all, everyone was wondering where the old coot had hobbled off to, whether it be somewhere far away into the lands of Creative, into the darkened Nether, or even past the mountains to Survival. As Carolina finally led them over a second hill, a loud howl broke through the air, reminding the aqua armored leader that night was upon them and shelter was now more necessary than ever. She stopped, signaling for the rest of her team to follow her lead.

"We’ll rest here tonight." Carolina announced, yawning as she plopped down on the ground, scrubbing the sweat off her forehead. "We’ll keep it up in the morning…"

Everyone groaned both in relief at the rest stop and in agony at the thought of more traveling, but they knew it was necessary. “Got it, boss.” Connie mumbled, waking up as Maine sat down, scooting away to stand up and stretch. “I’ll get some food for us before Maine tries to eat anybody.”

York gave Connie a worried look. “You sure, man?” He asked, silently wishing they’d brought their AI pets along. “It’s the dead of night, and I’m not sure it’s a good idea to split off.”

Connie chuckled, patting York on the head as she walked off. “Don’t worry, York. I can take plenty care of myself. I’m a big girl.” As if to prove her point, she slashed one of the biome’s rare oak trees in half with her axe, whistling as she disappeared into the night.

South whistled loudly. “Hot damn.” She whispered, smirking at Connie’s disappearing person.

"Keep it in your pants." North ordered, in a way only he as her brother could possibly get away with.

"Don’t tell me what to do." South grumbled, punching North in the arm, earning a mild swat to the head via North.

"Play nice, children." Wyoming ordered, before things could get ugly and turn into a full on sibling fight; Notch only knew how badly that would end for them. "Just go on off to bed."

South rolled her eyes, but nonetheless laid down on the cool grassy ground, slashing any weeds nearby that dared to try and spread pollen or grass blades into her eyes. “Whatever, dad.”

"Don’t call me that. I’m not your pop." Wyoming muttered, but kept to himself, pulling out his bow, re-fastening the draw string over and over in a monotonous motion used to pass the time.

"Can you all hush while I try to actually start a damn fire?" Carolina asked, working with Maine to try and start the flame, improvising flint by slashing two swords against each other in quick, rushed motions. "This is hard enough as it is."

York chuckled, earning a mild glare from Carolina, to which he winked back at her. “Anything you need me to do, ‘Lina?”

"Why don’t you jump off a bridge and shut the fuck up?” South suggested, having secretly yet gently stolen a teddy bear from Wyoming’s sleeping form, cuddling the teddy against her chest. “It would do us all some good.”

Maine growled something at South, thankfully, though, it was lost to her ears, seeing as at that moment she’d passed out. “Ignore her, she’s just tired.” Carolina reminded him. “Just focus, we need fire or we’re dead meat out here.”

The two were both, in their own ways, elegant in the way they fought, though the hits were never meant for a target other than the other miner’s sword. Where Maine was all brute force, sword swinging to do nothing more than damage and destroy, Carolina was more planned in her movements, all quick, sharp, and meant to effect the other. Sparks came quickly thanks to this, but, unfortunately, it was made clear that swords would not get the job done. With defeated sighs, Carolina put away her sword, along with Maine, both taking seats opposite each other around the failed campfire. Seeing his chance, York squeezed in beside Carolina, wrapping an arm around her.

"I think it was an awesome idea, ‘Lina!" York assured her, rubbing the woman’s back in a soothing motion. "Don’t you worry, we’ll get a fire started sooner or later."

"Monsters have spawned by now, York." Carolina reminded him, looking angry once more, mild fury apparent in her emerald eyes. "If we don’t get a fire started soon, we’ll have Creepers and Skeletons galore on our asses."

"Um… why isn’t Connie back yet?" North finally asked after a few minutes, looking around with worry filled eyes. "Shouldn’t she’ve come back by now?"

As if on cue, a loud screech broke through the air. “Connie!” South screamed, standing at the ready, sword drawn, awake without question. “I’m coming!”

The twin took off into the darkness, disappearing from sight. “South, stop!” North shouted, ready to go after his twin sister, but stopped, looking around desperately. “South?”

Said twin returned exactly three seconds later, Connie over one shoulder, a knocked out unidentified miner over the other. She gave them a wide eyed look, zooming right by them, yelling something intangible other than the phrase ‘fuck’ being used several times in her scrambled warning. The Freelancers froze, looking warily at each other as they attempted to deduce what exactly was going on. South was not one to run from a fight, they reasoned. So why would South of all people run from something that could possibly have injured Connie and some stranger?

They didn’t have long to wonder.

…

”Shit!” York screamed, running like all Hell was loose away from the rampaging Spiders, boots clamping against the muddy, uneven earth.

North, unsurprisingly, was far faster than York, charging away from the twenty something Spiders. “Holy crap, run!” He advised, shooting arrows at any Spiders who got too close for comfort.

”Everyone, keep calm and try to outrun them! Try to make it to the next town!” Carolina ordered professionally, but even the others could see how scared she was. “Try to split up; they can’t catch us all! Wyoming and York, you get climbing on those hills east of here. North, you catch up with South and Connie and try to make it to the next village. Maine, you’re with me; we’ll try to swim our way to an island west of here. We’ll all meet up in the desert at daybreak. Go!”

"Aw, bullocks." Wyoming muttered, sadly following York as the brunette took off for the hills not too far off, barely keeping up with the younger man.

Maine grunted something before running towards Carolina, following her to a river nearby. As they hopped in, a few Spiders followed, just as a few had followed York and Wyoming, and tried to swim after them. Now, not many people knew this, but Carolina was, and still is, a pretty pathetic swimmer (Her mom is too though). The red head tried to keep up, really, she did, but she was rather short, and the moon being up made the tide that much worse. Without a word, Maine scooped Carolina clean out of the water, plopping her onto his back to shoot arrows at the incoming Spiders while he focused on swimming to the island. One after the other, Spiders died, but that in no way stopped Maine from continuing for the far off shoreline.

North, with a deep breath, started after South, his lungs burning like Hell fire as he followed. If there was one thing other than quick wittiness that South outdid North in, it was speed. She’d always been faster, not above leaving North in the dust, but this time, North felt no need to blame her. In this world, it’s every man for himself, it was actually only recently that miners had begun sticking together, forming villages and groups to stray away from danger. Rumor had it that the death rates had dropped dramatically, whether from less children being unsupervised and wandering off to get eaten, or less miners getting ripped apart by monsters. No one knew which was more successful.

As the night grew longer, the Spiders disappeared, but the miners stayed put until daybreak.

…

"Maine, wake up."

The behemoth of a miner awoke with a muted growl, rolling over in an attempt to ignore Carolina and, for the millionth time, remind her he was not interested whatsoever in her morning training sessions. However, Carolina was persistent, and like she’d seen Connie do several times, she climbed on top of Maine, and with a deep breath, jumped as hard as she could on his stomach. The miner acted before he replied. Maine grabbed Carolina with an amount of skill that reminded Carolina that Maine had, according to Wash’s explanation, grown up mostly on his own and was used to attacking before letting himself wake up. The red head was held roughly upside-down, the hold on her thin ankle hurting and aching as Maine glared at her, a loose grumble leaving his throat.

"I hope that’s your stomach, buddy." Carolina replied, a loose smile on her charming face, pretending her life hadn’t just flashed before her eyes when Maine had grabbed her. "How ‘bout putting me down now, huh?"

Maine, with just a hint of remaining anger and adrenaline, set his leader down gently, ruffling her fiery hair with a soft huff. “Yeah, got it, I’ll try to not do it again, bud. But hey, we really need to get going.”

Maine, blinking, looked around the crudely made campsite with wide eyes, before he nodded, remembering the adventure more clearly now that he was more awake. “See? We gotta go before the guys start worrying themselves sick.” Carolina explained further.

With a nod, Maine and Carolina started walking to the shore of the tiny island they had taken shelter on, looking over towards where the opposite continent lied. Not saying a thing, Maine hoisted Carolina onto his back, hopping into the water. The giant swam like an incoming shark, slick and skilled in it’s practiced and majestic art. The red head on said giant’s back huffed to herself before deciding Maine had done enough protecting of her person for one night, and hopped into the water herself, daring to swim to shore without Maine’s aid. She could swim, not very well, but she was no damsel in distress, and she was determined to prove that to Maine. Maine rolled his sharp grey eyes, restraining the need to hoist Carolina right back onto his back, knowing full well how she’d just jump right back into the salty blue of the ocean.

"I’m fine, Maine. Stop giving me that look." Carolina ordered, more or less dog-paddling her through, dragging a tad behind her friend, but still staying above water, if only barely. "I said stop it."

"Hm." Maine managed to sound out, despite the damage on his vocal-cords, purposefully hanging back in-case Carolina might need his help.

"You’re such a dad." Carolina muttered, a hard scowl on her face when Maine held out his arm to her, just as they reached shallower water. "I like the water, Maine. It’s helping me wake up more, and I don’t need any help."

Maine decided, in that moment, to quit trying to help the red head unless she desperately needed it. After all, she was an adult. She could take care of herself.

…

"Wake up."

"Mm."

"Wake up, York."

"Go away…"

"For the love of- wake up, you bloody wanker!"

York awoke with a loud yelp as Wyoming smacked his rear with an arrow, thankfully not the sharp flint tip, but only giving him a harsh smack to get him up and moving. Instead, the brunet twisted on the dirt ridden ground, briefly reacting on instinct and grabbing his sword, slashing outward. Wyoming dodged with a pristine expertise, sidestepping as York tucked into a roll, standing and swinging again, this time stronger and more planned. Wyoming, again, dodged, if only barely, drawing his bow and firing an arrow in front of York’s feet. The lock-pick stopped dead in his tracks, breathing hard and fast as he blinked several times, regaining what was left of his fatigue and tossing it away, remembering where he was and why.

"Wyoming?" York asked, coughing as his throat burned with his body’s revenge, punishing the man for his foolish reaction.

"The one and only, mate." Wyoming replied, a small smirk glued under his mustache. "That wake you up enough, or do I need to smack you again?"

York glared a bit at Wyoming, huffing as he turned away (Not completely, couldn’t give the cracker another chance), putting his sword away and putting his blanket in his backpack. “Thanks alot, asshole. Ya know, most people just nudge somebody’s shoulder to wake them up.”

"I’m aware," Wyoming explained, rolling his dark eyes. "Not my fault you’re such a deep sleeper, chap. Should get that checked out sooner or later."

"Shut up," York ordered, a bit of anger still remaining as a dull ache in his skull, either that or the wake up call had been more effecting than anyone would’ve liked. "Let’s go, we need to meet up in that village before someone gets hurt."

Wyoming nodded in confirmation, throwing his satchel over his thin shoulder, taking a puff of his cigarette, tossing York’s spare lighter at said brunet. “Come along then, while it’s still daylight.”

York took his lighter back with a very audible huff, making a very childish face at Wyoming once the Brit turned his back. When Wyoming swung around, a wide smirk on his face, York ceased his face-making. Instead, the brunet busted past Wyoming like a stray lightning bolt, blasting by and smacking the Brit upside the head, at the same time stealing the older man’s cigarette, taking a deep puff of it and stomping it out before racing down the hill. With an almost primal growl, Wyoming was after York, black hair a bit of an unruly mess as he took off after the childish party animal. With that, the sun began to rise over the horizon, but it went unnoticed as a British man chased after what he considered to be an inappropriate American.

…

"You okay, Connie?"

The short woman yawned awake, blinking her eyes open at South curiously as the blonde stood tall over her, a rare and almost terrifying look of worry on her face, her brow creased with the emotion. Connie, on instinct, nodded at South, having registered the question after a few more seconds of being conscious. South sighed with relief, returning back to her cocky and sometimes inappropriate nature faster than a heartbeat to a newborn, smirking down at the girl. Looking around, Connie quickly realized she was in the middle of a desert, just as the sun was coming up. There were no monsters to be seen, only South, standing between Connie and a powerful, roaring fire.

The fire complimented South’s nature like salt to water, the flame cursing and flaring like South’s tongue on any day of the week, it’s burning glow like South’s strong and emotional personality, it’s warmth hidden by it’s dangerous licks, just like South’s kindness, hidden behind walls and fortresses of anger and redemption. After a moment, Connie noticed another miner nearby, a young man without any armor whatsoever, and the memories rushed back like a wildfire, consuming and uncontrollable. Connie remembered meeting him, just a poor, failing village doctor named Frank, having been kicked out of his village for being such a terrible doctor, having lost seven of his nine patients after a wild horde of Zombie’s had attacked the village.

He and Connie had crossed paths while Connie was out gathering food, and she had nearly killed the poor kid, but he had immediately fallen back to screeching whenever Connie had tried at stabbing him, thinking him to be a Zombie. After a somewhat awkward conversation, Connie had found out Frank’s name, offering to take him back to her camp and help him out, but Spiders had attacked them out of nowhere, and she had been knocked out while trying to fight them back. After that, she had no clue what had happened, but she and Frank weren’t dead, so she supposed that was a pretty good sign.

"What happened?" Connie figured she may as well ask South, after all, she looked to have been her savior.

"Long story short, a shitload of Spiders tried to more or less ram your rectum, so this nerd saved your sorry ass and dragged you both into a shitty tree. Would’ve died if I hadn’t gone looking for ya, Connie." South explained loosely, waving Connie off whenever the brunet tried to thank her. "Don’t worry ‘bout it, kid. All in a day’s work."

"Mm." Both South and Connie looked over, watching as Frank sat up, yawning loudly as he came to. At once, he froze, eyes wide as he stared at South. "Oh… oh no… w-who are y-you?" He begged, looking ready to scream.

Connie, thankfully, stepped in before South could quite possibly scare the poor medic with her rather blunt personality. People like South took getting used to after all. “This is South,” She explained, smiling comfortingly at Frank. “She’s a friend.”

Frank looked thankful, taking deep breaths as he finally recovered, nodding with his eyes closed, trying to fully calm himself down. “Thank God… I thought we were goners for sure, after you got hurt. I’m not very strong, so, I tried to drag you into a tree… God, I’m so glad you’re not dead. It seems like everyone I ever meet dies or runs away from me.”

South stared at Connie, eyes wide, giving her an ‘Explain this’ look. “He’s a doctor from an old village a few miles out from where I met him… well, used to be a doctor. He got kicked out.”

"You suck that bad, Doc?" South asked, laughing a bit at Frank. "That’s pretty fucking hard, man. You must’ve been the worst doctor ever."

"My name isn’t Doc." Frank insisted, ignoring South’s insult. It seemed to Connie like he was used to them by now. "It’s Frank."

"Yeah, well, that name is for bitches and old dudes," South stated matter-of-factly, nodding at the man. "From this day onward, your name is Doc."

"Well…" Frank looked suspicious, but nonetheless, he didn’t look willing to put up a fight about it. "Alright, but I don’t think it’ll stick."

[Frank “Doc” DuFresne - Not-Professional Medical Assistant]

"Oh, trust me, it’ll stick." South promised, grinning like a bobcat before looking at Connie, that worry entering her electric eyes with a tiny spark, lasting long enough for a simple question. "You still doing okay, Connie?"

Connie nodded, allowing South to help her to her feet. “Alright, then,” South muttered, complying with the look in Connie’s own eyes to relax. “Come on, let’s get outta here and find the gang.”

Doc, for a moment, looked terrified out of his mind again. “Wait! Y-You’re not just gonna leave me out here, are you!?” He asked, shaking as he held up his medical backpack. “I can perform medical procedures, and that’s better than having nothing, right? Come on, please don’t leave me out here alone!”

"Hm, I dunno…” South said, the smile on her face trying to tease, while on the inside Connie knew South was just dicking around. “Think we should keep him, Connie?”

"I’m not sure, South," Connie admitted, entering the game as well, her own teasing grin on her face. "Not sure how much he can really help us out…"

Doc, getting desperate, grabbed Connie by her shoulders, shaking her once. “You wouldn’t leave me, right Connie? I mean, I think we bonded in those woods, and…” He suddenly looked way more confident, even smirking. “And you owe me! I saved your life, now you gotta return the favor!”

"I thought me saving your sorry ass was the favor,” South said, raising an eyebrow. “I mean, if you want, I could always take you back…”

”Don’t!” Doc begged, his confidence wilting away in mere minutes of forming. “I’ll do anything, I swear! Um… I have a friend, a guy named Franklin- I know, similar name- but he lives in some canyon! He writes to me alot! Look, he’s super nice! He’ll help ya out, and you can just leave me with him!”

That seemed to interest Connie. “Really now?” A sudden thought entered the brunet’s mind, and she paused, looking hopefully at Doc. “Hey… since this Franklin guy writes to you… has he told you about stuff he’s seen? Like, any strange miners?”

Doc nodded, smiling as he seemed to have gotten South and Connie’s protection. “Oh yeah,” He exclaimed, waving his hand as he spoke, something both woman assumed he associated with his Franklin friend. “He talks all about the other guys he’s with! There’s Caboose, Tucker, Church, Sarge, Grif, Simmons, and Wash!”

South and Connie stopped, exchanging a look, which got Doc worried. “Wait! Did I offend you guys? I’m sorry, please don’t- hey, where are we going?” Before he knew it, Doc was begging dragged towards an incoming group of Freelancers by Connie and South.

As the other Freelancers arrived, they all looked each other over, until all eyes landed on a disheveled North Dakota. The male of the twins was breathing hard, doubled over, hands pressed against his knees, having ran to catch up as soon as he’d seen everyone else coming on time. York and Wyoming still looked irritated at each other, but all seemed to be temporarily forgotten as York ran over to Carolina, hugging her close and kissing her temple, the two exchanging a few brief words before separating. Maine looked fine, his arms crossed as he gave Doc the stink eye, who gulped and hid behind Connie, making the giant chuckle lightly, amused by the newcomer’s timidness.

"So, is everyone okay?" Carolina asked, and once everyone nodded, she breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. Now th-“

”Carolina,” It was South who spoke, voice hot like iron, just as strong to boot, her glare fixated on the red head with overwhelming intensity.

"What is it, South?" Carolina asked, noticing how excited Connie suddenly looked, her smile wide and apparent, bright like the morning sunshine over a salt ridden sea.

"We know where Wash is."

…

A/N: Alright alright alright! Finally here, and I’ve got alot planned out, so the next chapter’ll be out sooner or later, but school is in session and it’s my top priority right now, to my bitter sadness. So, updates will come as fast and efficiently as they can, but it’ll take time! Thanks for sticking with me so long, and I hope you loved reading this chapter as much as I did writing it!

~Supercasey.


	7. Part 7

Nether Worry

Part 7

Pairing: Agent Washington/Tucker, Caboose/Church, Grif/Simmons

Description: In which the Reds and Blues come across a lonely Creative Mode dweller, Sarge makes about ten times more Iron Golems than are strictly necessary, and where Tucker learns that Wash is indeed not a replacement for Church and that may or may not be a bad thing after all.

 

The time was somewhere around five AM when Washington was roused awake by Tucker’s moans, certainly not ones he would’ve liked… had he seriously thought that, at a time like this? The other miner, the one who had moaned, was writhing on his bed in agony, groaning and aching from an unknown sickness or wound. Wash sat up, his brow furrowing as he looked over Tucker curiously, watching the poor miner whine as he clutched his belly, which, Wash had noticed, was much bigger since Tucker had returned a week prior. He had played it off as Tucker overeating, having after all been mostly starved during his adventure, but the miner had no idea if such a thing was true.

The grey miner pulled himself out of bed, coming to stand over Tucker, placing his hand over the younger man’s forehead, feeling great warmth immediately smother his once ice cold hand. Tucker whimpered again, trying to roll over, only to have Wash roll him back onto his back, running his hand across Tucker’s forehead again in a comforting manner. Behind him, Caboose woke up, coming to stand beside Wash in his pajamas, Epsilon held to his chest in his arms. He gave Tucker a long, worried stare, bright blues gleaming as he looked over Tucker’s slightly bloated belly. The blue looked ready to reach out and pat Tucker, but Wash grabbed Caboose’s incoming fingers, shaking his head no.

"What is wrong with Tucker, Washingtub?" Caboose asked curiously, blinking as Tucker forced his pillow over his aching head.

"I’m not really sure, Caboose. I’m no doctor, and I’ve never really had to deal with sickness in Creative Mode." Washington admitted to the younger blue, shaking his head as somebody knocked on the door. "Fuck. Caboose, you watch Tucker and keep him in bed. Tucker, stay put, for the love of God.”

As soon as Wash opened the door, Grif, Simmons, Sarge, and Donut flooded in, Lopez following behind, stopping to bark at Epsilon, who growled at the wolf angrily. “What the fuck are you guys doing here?” Wash asked, looking them over. “We’re not due for a visit until Friday night for Monster hunting.”

"We heard a rucuss and needed ta give ‘er a check," Sarge explained, giving Wash a small nod. "Ya know how it goes."

”Yeah,” Grif added, looking sleepy and irritated. “And when shit gets loud, it’s usually ‘cus of you Blues.”

Washington sighed, shaking his head, but made no move to kick the Reds out. “Tucker is sick,” He explained, motioning towards Tucker’s hurting form. “We’re not sure what’s wrong with him.”

Sarge hovered over Tucker, looking the poor man over, nodding to himself as he came to an answer. “I think I know what’s been happenin’,” He stated, smirking at Washington. “Either A; Tucker has finally conformed to being a Red, but has been disowned like the Blue heretic he is by the Red God himself. Or B; he’s gonna be a mommy.”

”Uh…” Simmons had no words that he could really put together to explain his amazement. “Sarge… what the fuck?”

”What!?” Sister shouted, awake and loud as she shot up out of her bed, having been out cold seconds ago. “Tucker is having a baby!?”

”No one is having a baby!” Wash assured the yellow clad teenager, sighing deeply, rubbing his forehead. “Sarge, both of those are utterly ridiculous. I’m sure it’s nothing but a cold he picked up on his journey, nothing more, nothing less.”

”Yeah, well- then you can get me a bucket!” Tucker ordered, much more irritable and snappy in his sick or pregnant state. “And make it fast, I feel like shit!”

Wash looked ready to protest, so it was just his luck that Tucker immediately threw up his dinner from last night, an awful smell filling the base quickly. “Oh for the love of-“

"-I’ll get the mop…" Caboose said with both distaste and disappointment, dragging his feet sadly as he made to get said mop.

…

”WASH!” Tucker screeched, now sat up comfortably in bed, surrounded by pillows and a few pictures Sister and Caboose had drawn for him. “I need you!”

”Coming!” Washington replied, running through the base, a bucket at the ready.

"Why aren’t you in uniform?" Tucker asked, voice getting soft and small as he pushed the blanket up over his mouth, eyes at the ready.

Wash rolled his eyes, shaking his head. “I’m not wearing that damn outfit, Lavernius Tucker.” He stated, pouting childishly. “It’s completely unnecessary.”

Tucker’s eyes got a little glassy looking, he sniffled even, making Wash feel like the biggest asshole in the universe. “But Wash… it’ll make me feel so much better so much faster…”

"Did your ex really do this for you when you got sick back in your old village?” Wash asked, crossing his arms, beginning to give in.

"Yeah! It was a tradition… I miss her so much, Wash. Please oh please…. you’ve just gotta do this for me…” Tucker half-begged, trying to sound helpless.

Wash full on groaned, but nonetheless, ran off to get his 'Uniform'. Upon his departure, Sister and Grif entered the room, nodding at Tucker. “Sup, Tuck!” Sister greeted warmly.

"Sup, guys," Tucker replied, sitting up at once, abandoning the ‘Woe is me’ act in a heartbeat. "How ya doing?"

"Alright I guess," Grif answered, shrugging nonchalantly. "Donut keeps making us run 'Disease Awareness' drills. Me and Sister split when he started mentioning 'Together Showers'.”

Tucker outwardly shivered. “Sick!” He exclaimed, sticking his mouth out, groaning as an ache ran it’s way through his nervous system. “Fuck…”

"Flu still killing ya?" Sister inquired. Upon earning a nod, she smirked, running her hands over Tucker’s stomach. "Here, this outta make it better…"

”Ow!” Tucker complained, wrenching away when Sister pressed too hard. “Careful, man! I feel and look like a Creeper ready to pop a boner!”

”Tucker?” Washington asked from the other room, light tapping coming from his direction. “What was it ya needed now?”

Tucker panicked. “Uh… Wash!?” He sounded histarical. “You might wanna… uh… just, fuck, I need another bucket!”

"That’s all?” Wash asked, entering, holding said bucket securely in his white-gloved hand. “If that’s all ya needed, I coulda gotten it without the… fuck…”

Grif, Sister, and Tucker all stared at Washington, who was dressed in a rather skimpy black and white maid’s outfit, black heels and all. Honestly, the man looked nice in heels, but Grif and Sister randomly guessed it came from growing up with an older sister. The blonde blushed wildly, trying to pull the dress down more over his underwear, but it did little good to hide quite a bit to the searching eyes. After a moment, the Grif Siblings fell into a fit of shared laughter, their laughs not too much different, both amazingly cute and Cancer-Curing in their own ways. Washington blushed even more, looking away, face bright red with embarrassment. Tucker looked a bit guilty, but still chuckled a bit, secretly loving the sight.

"H-H-Holy SHIT!” Grif screeched out, rolling on the floor, unable to stay standing. “Aw Christ! This is the bed day ever, of all time!”

Sister was laughing just as hard, before she crawled onto her knees, getting in a praying position. “God,” She managed, giggling before she speak again. “It’s Kai… I know I said I was an atheist… I was wrong. So, so wrong.” She crawled over to Wash, kissing his hand. “Thank you, Wash. Thank you so fucking much!”

Grif finally got up after a little while, helping Sister to feet, both stumbling to the door as they continued to giggle and laugh. As soon as they were gone, Wash death-glared at Tucker, who gave him a bobcat smile, completely amused and guilty. “You okay, Wash?”

"Besides my destroyed dignity? Yeah, I’m fine, Lavernius,” Washington muttered, pouting as he crossed his arms, hating how constricting the dress was. “I hate you.”

”Aw,” Tucker cooed, smiling a bit softer at Wash. “You look nice. ‘Sides, fuck those guys, not like embarrassing shit hasn’t happened to them…”

"Like what?” Wash asked, suddenly very curious, sitting on the edge of Tucker’s bed, placing the bucket on the floor beside the bed. “I’d love to know…”

Tucker grinned, relaxing in his bed. “Maybe I’ll tell you a few things, I mean, we got the time…”

Before the two could get any closer (More like before Juju’s Tuckington moment could happen), a loud scream carried from outside into the base.

"He was wearing what now!?” Sarge yelled, Simmons, Grif, and Sister laughing very loudly in the distance.

Wash blushed and ducked his head. “I… I’m just gonna… go get dressed. Ya know, before Grif and Sister have physical evidence.”

Tucker nodded, if somewhat sadly, as Wash walked away. “Good idea, dude,” He muttered, looking away as Wash disappeared around the corner. “Not like you looked sexy in that… ow, fuck, cramps!”

…

"This is going nowhere!” Washington shouted, glaring at his boots and he crossed his arms, not looking the least bit pleased. “Tucker is sick, Caboose is trying but failing to help, Sister and Grif keep laughing when they look at me, Simmons is nowhere to be found, and Donut keeps trying to spray me with some kinda anti-sick thing or whatever.”

“‘S not so bad, Wash,” Sarge insisted, for once comforting the Ex-Creative Mode dweller. “I mean, least yer not dead!”

"Yeah, that’s real reassuring.” Wash muttered angrily, shaking his head in defeat. “I swear, I can’t take anymore useless bullshit today!”

Suddenly, Sarge stood, glaring at something in the distance. “What in God’s name- dammit, we got enemies inbound!” He readied his bow, breathing hard.

Wash stopped, turning around swiftly, only to be slammed into the ground by something way too heavy to be human. The man wriggled and squirmed until he was free and on his feet, sword in hand and ready to swing, before he stopped dead in his tracks, eyes growing wide as he looked his attacker up and down. “Maine?”

The Goliath nodded, picking Wash right up off the ground, giving him a rare bear-hug. The shorter, less strong man just froze, tempted to cry from joy at finally seeing at least one of his long lost friends. However, in seconds, North and York took Maine’s place, if a bit less cuddly, just ruffling his hair and smirking like the knuckleheads they were. Carolina was next with Connie, Connie hugging around his waist tightly, Carolina kissing his forehead and whispering something along the lines of ‘Missed ya, bro’. After awhile, even South stepped forward, simply smirking and giving him a playful punch to the shoulder, making the grey miner wince a bit, having forgotten South’s great strength.

"What in Sam Hell is goin’ on in this ‘ere canyon!?" Sarge demanded to know, looking at the Freelancers wildly. "Who are these folks?"

”Sarge,” Wash started, smiling warmly as he took a nice, deep breath, taking it all in. “These are my friends; these are the Freelancers.”

Sarge stood there, eyes wide, their icy blue color shining a bit beneath the shadow of his blood red helmet.

”Oh.”

…

”So, these are the late asshole Freelancers?” Tucker asked twenty minutes later, sat up in his bed, eyebrow raised at the gathered miners. “I’m not impressed.”

”Tucker…” Washington made sure to add warning to his voice, knowing how short-tempered Carolina was. He supposed she got it from both of their parents.

All the Freelancers exchanged a few glances, unsure of what to say or how to interact with the newly introduced miners. North seemed less stressed out, having been taken aside along with South to draw and talk with Caboose, to which South had proceeded to draw obscenities and to North tisking at her like an old man. Connie was now on Maine’s shoulders, a common place to find her these days, her hair style being stared at with impressed eyes by Donut. Maine stayed stoic and quiet, occasionally glancing at Grif, who he saw was staring way too longingly at his Enchanted Iron Sword. Simmons, Sarge, Carolina, York, and Wyoming all kept politely quiet, watching Wash and Tucker’s interaction curiously.

”What? I’m just saying! They’re fucking late as dicks, you were heartbroken without them around, dude!” Tucker explained, pouting and crossing his arms angrily. “If you should be getting pissed at anyone, it’s them!”

"Tucker, I’m not pissed, I’m just concerned that you’ll trigger Carolina into ripping your testicles off in one, foul swoop!" Washington stated, glaring at the aqua miner.

"It’s true," Carolina promised, gaining everyone, even Caboose and the Dakota Twin’s, attention. "What? If a guy pisses you off and he just leaves ‘em hanging out there… girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.”

”Word.” South added, nodding proudly as she finished scribbling something in brown crayon, using it in an almost gentle fashion with her strokes before holding it up proudly. “Look; I drew a dick.”

Caboose gazed at South’s artwork, thoroughly impressed. “Oh my gosh, you drew a banana!” He explained, looking it up and down. “Can you teach me to draw fancy bananas?”

South grinned, patting Caboose’s the head lovingly. “‘Course I will, kid. I’ll teach you to draw the biggest, hairiest, most beautiful bananas ever!”

”South,” It was North’s turn to warn South, giving her an unimpressed look. “Quit spoiling the minds of those who aren’t you.”

"Whatever, Mom!” South countered, chucking her crayon at North.

At once, Caboose grabbed South’s still raised hand, holding it in a bruising grip that South could not escape no matter what she tried. “Do not throw things,” Caboose ordered in a stern tone, sounding almost unreal. “We do not throw pretty color sticks at our friends. Understand?”

South gulped, wriggling nonstop. “Yes, sir.” She mumbled in a weaker tone, one only North had heard her use as a child, on only a few, rare occasions.

That seemed to trigger Caboose back into his happy-go-lucky self, making him running his fingers comfortingly through South’s hair. “Yay!” He cheered, smiling at her kindly. “Now we can continue to be super friends!”

Everyone else just stared, eyes wide. South regained as white as a sheet, taking a few minutes to just stare at her paper before returning to drawing, looking much less cocky now that she’d seen another side of Caboose. North reacted similarly, keeping his eyes on Caboose, but not enough to enact suspicion of any kind on himself from the blue dressed miner.

"I… I’m gonna pretend I never saw that…” York decided, earning a few nods. Even Maine looked scared for a few minutes, before looking gruff and fearless again.

”So…” Tucker trailed off, drumming his fingers on his bed, before his stomach started aching again. “Aw, fuck! Not again!”

"What’s wrong?" A voice asked from outside, Doc having stayed outdoors out of nervousness of the Freelancers he’d befriended during his travels. "Um, I’m a medic, so… I could check you out and see what’s wrong.”

"You’re a doctor?” Wash asked, looking intrigued. Anything that could get Tucker better faster was a Godsend in his mind. “Tucker here has been really sick lately… he can’t even get up today…”

”Interesting,” Doc commented, kicking into his Town Healer mode quickly. “Alright, so, I’ll be needing everyone to leave the room if I’m to be checking our patient out…”

"You heard ‘im! Everybody out!” Sarge ordered, firing an arrow into the roof for emphasis. “Quit stalling and get yer asses movin’!”

"I like this guy," Carolina commented as she passed, smirking at Sarge, to which Sarge simply glared back. Her aqua armor was a travesty upon his name as a Red.

It took longer for Wash to leave, his eyes still gazing at Tucker. “You sure about me going, Tucker?”

The darker man rolled his grey eyes, chuckling. “I’ll be okay, Wash,” He insisted, smirking at the older miner. “I’ll scream if anything comes up, 'kay?”

"… 'Kay.” Washington finally agreed, eyes lingering before he huffed out, leaving Doc to take care of his patient.

…

A/N: Oh yes, I think we ALL know where this is going! And if you don’t, I’m a bit disappointed. But, if you haven’t figured it out, here’s a hint; there’s gonna be another member to the Blue Team very soon! <3

~Supercasey.


	8. Part 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I'm not sure how many more chapters will come... but it won't stop at ten! (I think)

Nether Worry

Part 8

Pairing: Agent Washington/Tucker, Caboose/Church, Grif/Simmons

Description: In which the Reds and Blues come across a lonely Creative Mode dweller, Sarge makes about ten times more Iron Golems than are strictly necessary, and where Tucker learns that Wash is indeed not a replacement for Church and that may or may not be a bad thing after all.

...

"What's taking them so long?" Washington asked, glaring at Blue Base with equal intensity as Sarge did everyday.

"Calm down, man," York suggested, patting the younger miner on the back comfortingly. "I'm sure your boyfriend'll be just fine."

"He's not my-" Wash stopped, closing his mouth at the look York gave him, one he was far too familiar with now adays.

"Dude, quit lying. I saw the way you two were looking at each other, it was the same way I stared at 'Lina before we started dating," York explained, smiling at the memory. "Just tell him before some weird shit happens to him."

"Yeah, 'cus if ya don't, he's as good as dead around here," South stated matter-of-factly. "Fuck him while you can, Wash."

"You're not helping." Wash made sure to inform them, crossing his arms stubbornly. "It's alot harder than you think. I mean, Tucker's into girls, I can't just go in there and drop the bomb that I'm into him!"

"Yes you can," Carolina confirmed, shrugging at her younger brother's worry. She'd dealt with it for years after all. "Just go in there, tell him you're into him, then wait for a reaction. The worst he can do is say no, Wash."

"Or kick you out," South added, looking up from where she was seated on Caboose's shoulders. "He could throw you into the harsh, awful world and let you fend for yourself."

North walked past Caboose, smacking South on the knee, making her scoff and growl under her breath. "Ignore her," He suggested, smirking at his young friend. "Want my advice? Take it slow and wait for this whole thing of him being sick to blow over. Wait for your moment, then strike."

Wyoming gave North a careful look. "You sound like you're suggesting a way to murder him, lad," He made sure to inform the other, giving Wash a kinder look. "Just kiss him, for the love of God! What is with you kids and your ridiculous love triangles anyhow!?"

"Says the guy who I caught kissing Flo-" Connie was cut off as Wyoming smacked a hand over her mouth, muffling her until she licked his hand, making him squeak and let go. "My advice? Go with the flow, Wash."

Wash sighed, shaking his head. "Thanks, I guess, but I think I'm more confused now than I was before this conversation." He admitted, looking away.

As the seconds crept by for Doc's return, a sudden arrow shot through the air, smashing down beside Carolina's foot, making her jump. The red head swung around at once, sword at the ready, before she stopped, eyes wide as she gazed at the blonde before her. Tex stood tall and angry before the Freelancers and Blood Gulch Crew, a Zombie with mist surrounding it to her left, and a Creeper to her right. She glared at the two groups, looking them over before her eyes landed on Kaikaina, who was staring shamelessly at her breasts. The older woman gave Sister an odd look, looking the brunet up and down.

"Hey, kid," Tex said, snapping her fingers to catch Sister's attention. "Quit staring at my chest."

"You're kinda hot," Sister stated, as if this were a very important fact. "You from some kinda desert biome, lady?"

"It's Tex," Tex explained, suddenly glaring full force at Carolina. "Who the fuck are you?"

"Who the fuck are you?" Carolina countered, crossing her arms as she gave Tex a once over with her emerald eyes.

"I asked you first." Tex insisted angrily.

"I asked you second." Carolina stated, smirking at the natural blonde.

Beside her, the Zombie scoffed, sounding flabbergasted. "Aw... She is Beth Allison AKA Tex; world famous sword-wielder, natural blonde, Blood Gulch Queen, part-time miner."

"... Oh..." Carolina simply replied, not looking too impressed by the looks of it.

"Now... who, the fuck, are you?" Tex asked, voice teetering on dangerous and blood-thirsty.

"My name's Carolina. I'm new to Blood Gulch." Carolina provided, smirking again at the blonde. "So... you're the girl Caboose keeps going on about... 'bout time I finally met you."

"You only heard about her, like, seven minutes ago," York spoke up, but shut up when he saw the way Carolina and Tex were glaring at each other. That glare only meant one thing for Carolina, and judging by the way that Zombie was starting to freak out... aw fuck.

"Hey, guys, I- what's going on?" Doc stopped short, staring from Carolina to Tex, a first-aid in his hands. "Uh... whose she?"

"We'll get to that later. How's Tucker?" Washington stepped in, brows knitting with worry as he walked over to Doc.

"What's wrong with Tucker?" The skeleton asked, stepping forward, so that a tiny white mini-version of church could pop up before the miners. "He dead?"

"Church!" Caboose screeched, throwing South haphazardly off his shoulders, letting her collapse on Connie as he talk-hugged the Zombie. "I have missed you so much! Did you miss me?"

Faintly, Wash could just make out Church whispering something to Caboose, before he straightened, his momentary anger diluted for the time being. "Seriously, where the fuck is Tucker?"

Doc sighed, rubbing sweat from his forehead. "Inside, but you can't see him right now. Actually, that's what I'm here to explain. You see, your friend is-"

"Dying? Oh no!" Caboose screeched, letting go of Church to grab Doc by the shoulders, sobbing violently.

"No, he's not dying, he just has-" Doc, once again, was cut off.

"No chance to live? I knew it!" Caboose exclaimed, now on his knees. Off to the side, Connie had a bowl of popcorn, eating excitedly as she watched the scene unfold.

"Caboose! One more interruption outta you, and he's gonna have two patients." Church promised, raising his fists carefully, though it was clearly an inexperienced action for him in his new body.

"How do I say this, your friend is..." Doc stopped, making everyone just stare him through several beats of silence.

"Why are you pausing? Caboose is not gonna interrupt you this time." Carolina explained, seeing as if Church didn't shut him up, she would. She was just as curious as the others to see what was wrong.

Doc rolled his eyes, showing a bit of hidden sass underneath his usual layer of fear and shyness. "No, that was just for dramatic effect. He's pregnant." He confirmed, looking proud.

"Wait, what the fuck?" York asked, giving Washington a long stare. "Dude, I thought you were gay! And I thought Tucker was man!"

"Heheh, fucking preggers." South muttered under her breath, smirking before she paused, looking very excited. "Holy shit, that means he's having a kid! Fuck yeah!"

"Doc, you've gotta be fucking lying. Tucker can't get pregnant." Wash explained, looking absolutely horrified with Doc's conclusion.

"Yeah, well, maybe SOME old chap should've used protection, hm?" Wyoming stated, with everyone giving Wash a round of disappointed stares.

Wash sputtered, looking from the Freelancers to the Blood Gulch Crew. "For the last time, I am not in a relationship with Tucker! Secondly, even if I were, I'm asexual!"

Caboose tilted his head, utterly confused. "Washingtub, what is asexual supposed to mean?"

"Oh, well, it means I can still love someone, but I just don't want to have sex while in our relationship." Wash explained.

"Oh... what does sex mean?" Caboose decided to ask next, after all, if Wash had used the word, surely HE would know what it meant, right?

"Uh..." Wash trailed off, suddenly wearing a way too enthusiastic grin for the Blue rookie. "Well, I'm no expert obviously, but the Reds would just LOVE to tell you all about it, Caboose!"

Caboose gasped, eyes wide. "Really?"

Wash nodded, internally noting to thank the Reds later on. "Yep! Why don't you go on over to Red Base with them and learn about it while I take care of Tucker?"

"That sounds very fun..." Caboose announced, mulling it over. "I think I will do that."

"Perfect." Wash replied, maneuvering Caboose to go with a rather pissed off looking Red Team. "Have fun, buddy!"

"You owe us big time, Washington." Simmons promised, honest to God glaring at Wash before walking off with his team, Caboose in tow.

Wash turned back to Doc, glare sharp on his face. "Alright... now let me see Lavernius."

...

The inside of Blue Base was warm and inviting, yet the thick stink of sickness ricocheted through the air, making anyone who entered gag or step back. Wash bit his tongue, walking behind the medical officer to soon stand beside Tucker's bed, where the darker man was found soundly sleeping. His skin was flaming hot to the touch, and his face was soaked with a thick layer of sweat. The sick miner groaned in his sleep, unable to turn over on his belly, a small but very round and noticeable bump now showing. Wash hesitated, but then rested one of his hands on the round mound, sighing as he stared at Tucker.

"I gave him some meds to keep him under," Doc informed the Freelancer, a considerable distance behind him. "He'll be out for at least an hour or so, but he might deliver any day now."  
"How could he've gotten pregnant? Not that I'm saying he is, but... is it possible?" Wash asked, squinting down at the younger man's stomach. "I've never heard of a male pregnancy before."

"Zombies do it to Villagers sometimes, but usually only females," Doc explained, already setting a bucket of water to boil on a nearby stove. "I'm not saying it's common, but I believe it's possible. Can you ask Sister if her and Tucker got attacked by any Zombies on their quest?"

"Uh, yeah, I can do that." Wash replied, nodding to himself as he grabbed a small, Red Stone powered machine. Sarge had invented a few days ago. "This is what Sarge calls a 'Walky Talky'. If something happens... press the red button. It'll connect you to Red Base."

"Got it. Don't you worry about a thing, Wash. Tucker is in good hands... okay, not good hands, but reliable ones!" Doc promised, waving at Wash as the Freelancer ran off.

Alone again, Doc got to work. He checked on the water again before searching a nearby chest, finding wool blankets and a few sponges inside. He grabbed a bucket of colder water, and threw the sponges in to let them soak. The medic quickly washed his hands in the sink afterwards, running some over his face. He was exhausted, and part of him was reminding him that he'd never performed a successful birth before... but hey, seventeenth time's the charm, right? Yeah, he'd do just fine. It's not like Washington and the others would kill him in a fit of rage of Tucker died, right? Oh God, go to your happy place, Frank! Go to your happy place!

"You're a real lucky guy, Tucker," Doc announced, deciding to just talk aloud to his unconscious patient. It was better than thinking about his possible death by nightfall. "Having a boyfriend like Wash must be so comforting, knowing he's there for you. At least, I believe you're both dating. You're just hiding it, I'm sure."

Tucker didn't reply, unless his pain filled moan was any acknowledgement towards the medical officer. "I know it hurts, buddy. Just lie still. The baby'll be here soon." Doc assured his patient, patting his head comfortingly.

After a few minutes of this, the Walk Talky went off, flashing bright red. Doc clicked the red button, blinking down at the device. "Um... hello?" He asked, voice a bit worried. He'd never seen technology this advanced before. "Is anyone there?"

There was heavy static before a voice broke through, hard to hear yet easy to interpret upon further listening. "Doc, this is York! Wash asked me to call you on this thing! By the way, this thing is fucking awesome!"

"Heya, York." Doc greeted, trying not to sound too nervous. "Any news from Washington and Sister about my theory?"

"Yeah, Wash said that Sister said that they didn't meet any Zombies. Sister also told me to tell you that she thinks Crunchbite did it, whoever that is. Sounds like a professional Endermen hunter." York explained, the sound of others talking in the background making it hard to hear him. "Hey, guys, quiet the fuck down, I can't hear shit from Doc!"

"Then why don't you clean out the bird shit from your ears!?" South suggested, a loud 'Ow' being heard afterwards, possible from someone smacking South in the head.

"Sorry 'bout that," York apologized, chuckling a bit under his breath. "Everything's kinda hectic at Red Base... that Sarge guy keeps yelling about 'Hermaphrodite Blues' or some shit."

"Alrighty then... Crunchbite... I think I heard Sister mentioning him earlier, when I was working on Tucker in the Base. Didn't she say he was an Endermen or something?" Doc asked, trying to keep the stories straight in his mind.

"Uh... let me check..." York pulled away from the Walky Talky on his end, screaming loudly in the background. "Yo, Sister, Doc wants to talk to ya!"

In a matter of seconds, Doc's ears were flooded by Sister's loud and bodacious voice. "Oh, hey Doctor guy! So, you wanna talk or something? I got tons I can talk about!"

Doc coughed weakly into his hand, blushing rose red. "Um, actually, I wanted to know a little more about your friend Crunchbite."

And just like that, Sister went quiet, a rare occurrence in everyday Red vs Blue life. "Oh... yeah, him. Well, he was my friend who saved me once, and we stuck together for a long time... he left awhile back."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Doc replied in his best 'Doctor-Explaining-A-Loved-Ones-Death' voice, trying to keep his tone level and neutral. "Can you tell me his species and appearance?"

"Yeah! He was an Endermen, and he was, like, mega fucking tall! Also, he had a blue bow on for, like, two seconds one time when I put it on him. He burned it. It was hot. Like, the fire was hot, not Crunch, that's kinda fucking weird." Sister explained, her tone getting lighter and happier again.

Doc nodded to himself, scribbling it all down in an empty book with an ink stained quill. "I see. Was there anything else that was abnormal about him? Personality wise or physical wise?"

That got Sister to pause again, not from sadness or repressed feelings, but from honest to God confusion. "He was kinda... quiet. I dunno, lots of Endermen kinda are, but he was, like, super duper quiet. Like, he always looked like he wanted something, something really big that he couldn't tell me. I think it was that block thing, but I dunno, man."

"Got it. Thanks for the help, Sister." Doc replied, waiting until Sister had wished her goodbye to hang up. "Well, now I'm even more stumped. Guess we're clueless until the baby comes..."

"Hrgh!" Tucker cried out, snapping awake in a cold sweat as he writhed on the bed, looking shocked and suffering. "Holy shit! Ow, ow, ow! Why does it hurt!?"

"Oh boy..." Doc muttered, snapping on some clean leather gloves. "Better get the water and call Wash... this'll be interesting."

...

"I want to see Tucker!" Caboose boomed, the only reason that he was not in Blue Base being that the entirety of Red Team was dog-piling on him. "He is crying!"

"Caboose!" Simmons's voice was high pitched, mainly from fear, as he struggled to stay on top of the giant Blue miner. "Please calm down! Tucker is gonna be.. OW, fine! Grif, get the fuck off!"

"You get off!" Grif yelled, somehow having a much better grip on the miner than anyone else on his team.

"Both 'a ya shut it!" Sarge ordered, kicking outwards in a random fury. Donut squeaked, almost slipping off as Sarge's foot connected with his thigh. "Oops. Sorry there, Donut. Pass that on off to Grif, will ya?"

"Yes sir!" Donut replied, very lightly patting Grif's head rather than kicking the larger miner. "I think that'll do!"

Sarge outwardly groaned. "Dammit, Donut! When I say kick I mean for you to clobber Grif into the goddamn ground! Not tap 'im!"

Donut nodded quickly, giving a slightly harder tap to Grif's cheek this time, earning a neutral 'Meh' from the receiver. "That good, sir?"

Sarge had lost his faith in the wonder child that was Donut by the time North stepped outside, he and Washington being the only ones besides Doc inside Blue Base during the birth. "I've got news." The twin announced, earning everyone's attention. "The baby'll be here any minute!"

"Great!" York chirped, then stopped, suddenly awestruck. "Um... what're we gonna do when it fucking comes out? I mean, we're not exactly baby experts."

"We'll go with it," Carolina promised, standing before North as the leader of the Freelancers. "How's Tucker?"

"He's... well, he's getting through it. I've never heard a grown man scream that loudly before." North admitted, scratching the back of his head.

"Really? Woulda thought York would scream louder while you were sucking his hairy cock!" South stated, looking all too proud of herself for the insult. She blinked, surprised by everyone's glaring. "What? Just trying to lighten up the mood since that Tucker guy is gonna drop dead."

Before anyone, namely North, correct South or argue with her, a loud, thunderous cry arose from the base. "Holy shit! Oh my God... OH MY GOD! THAT IS NOT A HUMAN! THAT IS NOT A HUMAN FETUS!" Wash came screeching out of the base, terror written on his face. "THAT IS NOT A CHILD! THAT IS AN END SPAWN!"

Everyone stared, perturbed yet interested. "So... whose gonna go in first?" Church asked, looking around at his teammates and acquaintances. "Oh come on, someones gotta go check on those assholes!"

"He's right!" Sarge bellowed, standing up at once, a heroic pose in place. "As the leader of Red Team, it is my soul duty to protect my squad, even Grif... CHARGE!" He bounded into Blue Base.

Not two minutes passed before Sarge came screaming out, face white as a sheet as he ran off for cover. "ON SECOND THOUGHT, THERE IS NO SHAME IN RETREATING!" He claimed, escaping into Red Base with shocking speed.

Caboose then stood, Simmons, Grif, Donut, and Lopez tumbling to the ground beside him as the Blue miner stared at his own base. "I will go meet the scary baby... and we will be friends." He walked right in, despite everyone's protests.

A few minutes later (He lasted longer than Sarge or Wash), a loud, terrified screaming filled the air. "That tears it!" South announced, readying her Iron Sword. "You can terrify Wash! You can chase of the Sarge guy! You can even be an abomination! But NO ONE messes with Caboose!" She took off inside, finally followed by everyone else.

What was inside was beyond imagination.

...

"Oh my God!" Surely Church.

"It's HIDEOUS!" Definitely Tex.

"Hoppy shit!" That was York.

"!" Ah, yes, Maine.

There were many other reactions, but all of them were very similar. The Freelancers watched curiously as Doc held the small, squirming bundle in his arms. The little humanoid had pitch black skin, darker than even Tucker's skin. His eyes were a violent shade of pink, burrowing into anyone who stared too long, creeping into their unsuspecting souls. His hair matched his skin, yet was a shade darker, and the inside of his mouth looked like a black-hole. The infant cried out as Doc held him, kicking and crying for Tucker, who was barely conscious.

"It's a... boy?" Doc managed, loyally handing the small monstrosity to Tucker, who held the baby securely in his half-dead grip. "Congratulations!"

"Yeah, congratulations on your bastard child, Tucker." Tex muttered, patting the short man's head almost fondly. "You two'll be real happy together!"

"I... can I just die? Like, seriously, can I just die? Right here?" Tucker begged, the baby grabbing at his lip, pulling angrily. "The fuck you want, buddy?" He asked, though he sounded oddly... happy? It was hard to tell. "You hungry or some shit?"

"Okay, yeah, no, I'm not watching you feed that thing!" Church decided, turning to walk away. "Fuck this, fuck that monster, and fuck me!"

"I would, but you literally have no cock." Tex promised, earning a loud, steady silence. "Hey, I'm just being honest."

"That is not a baby." York whispered, barely loud enough for Carolina to hear over everyone's continued chattering.

"What do you mean? It looks like a baby to me." Carolina announced, hands on her hips as she nodded at the tiny child.

"The fuck?" North rarely swore, but for once, he let himself. "How can you believe that... that Mob is a human baby?"

"Babies don't gotta be human," South told her twin, taking the baby from Tucker's grip, looking it over carefully. "... Yeah, this is a legit baby."

"So... what now?" Connie asked, and the room grew painfully quiet, the only sounds being the baby's continued cries and Tucker's pained moans.

What now indeed?

...

A/N: This took literally centuries, but here we are! JUNIOR! Please R&R!

~Supercasey.


	9. Part 9

Nether Worry

Part 9

Pairing: Agent Washington/Tucker, Caboose/Church, Grif/Simmons, Connecticut/South Dakota, New York/Carolina

Description: In which the Reds and Blues come across a lonely Creative Mode dweller, Sarge makes about ten times more Iron Golems than are strictly necessary, and where Tucker learns that Wash is indeed not a replacement for Church and that may or may not be a bad thing after all.

A/N: So I can’t remember if I set this story in any specific month, but I’m just gonna roll with the idea that it’s late November there too.

...

"Okay, Junior! Repeat after me!" Doc ordered, smiling at the baby Endermen-Human hybrid.

Blue Base was rather quiet that morning, it being three days since 'End's Offspring' had been born. Currently, Doc had taken a liking to teaching Junior new words and phrases, but nothing worked that well unless Tucker was around. Said miner had been sleeping more, claiming that the birthing process had taken a huge toll on him, which wasn’t completely untrue. Still, everyone was starting to grow tired of Tucker’s laziness, all except Caboose of course, who’d been too busy hanging out with Church (Which meant following him literally everywhere he went).

Red Base was rather loud, the noise never ceasing to completely dissolve. Amazingly enough, Grif was struggling to sleep, claiming that Junior was making him nervous as fuck. Simmons was unaffected by Junior, but sympathized with Grif, spending even more time with the orange miner. Sarge busied himself in building, attempting on behalf of Church to create some kind of potion that’d restore him to his human form. Meanwhile, he was also trying to make an eternal life potion for the Freelancers. Donut had taken a liking to hanging out with Connie, for some reason, but no one complained. But somethings never changed, like how Lopez stayed loyal to Sarge, growling at anyone who came near either of them that wasn’t a Red (or Grif).

The Freelancers had started up on making their own base, building it with mostly grey and black colors. Maine seemed neutral as usual, Connie was excited to explore and talk to anyone who’d listen, York seemed happy as a clam to chat for hours with Tucker, Carolina and Tex liked to wrestle and argue on a daily basis, North liked spending time hanging out with Caboose, South seemed eager to play with Junior, and Wyoming tried as hard as physically possible to avoid everyone. Things had been cooling down, and everyone was glad for it.

As for Washington… he was still worrying over everything, but even he couldn’t deny the air of peace that’d settled over Blood Gulch. So, he had decided to keep staying in Blue Base, currently watching Doc make a fool out of himself… again.

"You ready to be amazed, Wash?" Doc asked, looking all too hopeful as he grinned at Wash, while Junior sat before him in a highchair made by Sarge.

"If you think this’ll actually work, sure." Wash muttered, giving the little infant an interested stare.

"Alrighty, Junior! Say purple! Pur… ple!” Doc sounded out, looking excitedly at his miniature student.

”Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” Junior sounded out, the noise loud, torturous, and downright offensive.

However, Doc seemed to find it acceptable, patting Junior on the head. “Good job, Junior! Once I’ve taught you all the colors, I’ll teach you how to not judge people by them!”

Washington rolled his eyes, standing up to leave. Tucker wouldn’t be up for at least another hour, and boredom clawed at his brain like an out of control grizzly bear loose in a petting zoo. “Hey, I’m gonna go check on ‘Lina and the others, ‘kay Doc?” He called out, standing up to leave. “Call me if Tucker wakes up.”

"Got it, Wash!" Doc replied, looking up from where he’d been playing with Junior, who he quickly turned to with hopeful eyes. "You finally gonna say that thing to Wash, Junior?"

"Scr- MPH- Blar-” Whatever Junior had been trying to say to Washington over the last few days, it seemed like today was not the day for it to be said.

"Aw well. Bye, Wash! Can ya tell Connie I said hi?" Doc asked, picking Junior up out of the highchair to set him on the recently carpeted floor.

"Sure thing. Bye, Junior!" Wash said, before waltzing out the door, the wind blowing right into his eyes.

…

November had, at first, blown into Blood Gulch without so much as a chill, but after only a week or so, it was snowing and damn near impossible to go outside without freezing to near death. Thankfully, it wasn’t December quite yet, meaning the snow wouldn’t stick around after landing for a few more weeks. Washington tied the Creeper scarf around his neck tighter, feeling almost like a hangman as he stumbled over the rock-hard ground. It was terribly cold, yet it refused to snow, much to Connie and Maine’s delight. Personally, Wash liked the snow, as long as it didn’t stick around for way too long. It was peaceful, and he’d rarely seen it growing up in a Desert village as a child.

Speaking of childhood, Wash could just make out his older sister from where he stood, her cherry red hair flowing like ocean waves in the harsh breeze, her aqua sweater looking nice and cozy around her short form. York was beside her, his arm wrapped around her thin waist as another harsh breeze blew by, making Wash and probably everyone else outside shiver. Carolina, York, and the other Freelancers were currently holed up on top of their in-progress new base. It didn’t look half bad from where Wash had been standing, and would be at least three or more times bigger than Red Base or Blue Base.

"Hey, Wash, you okay over there?” North asked, poking his head out the front door of the base. He and Maine had been busy working on the bottom floor and basement rather than the upper levels, seeing as they both feared heights quite a bit. “Wanna come inside?”

Nodding, Wash happily took the offered invitation, hurrying inside of the base. Inside, it was made very clear to the blond man that things weren’t even close to finished. There was still a gaping hole in the floor, for one thing, where Wash could see Maine inside setting up torches and cleaning away some of the excess dirt. North and Maine were both filthy, covered head to toe in dirt, grass blades, and still wet mud. Thankfully, they were both dressed in older and more worn out clothes they had found, making it not as annoying or at least less awful to get a little dirty. As long as their armor and everyday clothes were clean, they’d be just fine.

"How’s the baby? Sorry, South’s been bugging me every ten minutes to call you and ask about him." North admitted, scratching the back of his head as he blushed.

"Oh, Junior’s fine. Doc’s been keeping him entertained while Tucker rests." Washington explained, pulling off his scarf. It was beginning to itch and strain his breathing. "How’s everyone here?"

”Busy.” North deadpanned, making a sideways jerk with his head in the general direction of the ladder leading upstairs. “Everyone’s been working on the base. You should consider joining us, it’ll be funner with the whole gang around.”

"I know, but I wanna stay with Tucker if I can. He needs me right now." Wash mumbled, it being his turn to blush as he looked away nervously. "I was just checking on you guys is all… hey, tell Connie that Doc and I say hi, ‘kay?”

"Sure," North muttered, sounding almost hurt at the fact that Wash still wasn’t interested in joining in on the building process. "Need me to pass anything on to ‘Lina too? I don’t mind."

”Naw, just tell her I said hello.” Wash explained, reluctantly tying back on his scarf. “I’m gonna go back and recheck on Tucker. Visit me at Blue Base later if you want. Oh, and bring York! I’ve been meaning to hang out with you guys for awhile now.”

"You got it, Wash." North replied, turning back to digging out the hole with Maine, though he stayed above ground. "Bye."

"Bye." Wash muttered, leaving the warmth of the unfinished base, only to plunge head first into the bitter cold of Blood Gulch’s incoming winter.

…

"How was your walk?" Doc asked as Wash entered, holding a half undressed Junior in one arm, Epsilon under the other.

"Just fine. How was Junior?" Wash asked, looking concerned as he spotted the scratch marks on the baby’s face and arms.

"Oh, yeah, he yanked on Epsilon’s tail… not pretty. I ran to get the first-aid kit, but when I came back, Epsilon was paralyzed on the ground while Junior stared at him… was kinda weird. Think he’s gonna grow up to be like Medusa? That would be so cool!” Doc explained excitedly, allowing Wash to hold the injured baby. “You’re just in time. Mind patching Junior up while I make sure Epsilon isn’t… ya know, dead?”

"Yeah, sure, no problem, Doc." Wash mumbled, placing Junior on the carpeted floor as he pulled out white bandages from the first-aid kit, easily tying them over the tiny scratches. "You’ll be alright, buddy. Just a few scratches."

Junior, still having not reacted to the cat’s attacking of his person, stared at Wash, pink eyes bright and big with a certain, black-hole nature to them. Wash shivered. “You’ve got quite the death stare, Junior. That’ll come in handy when you’re older.” Wash explained, grinning at the infant.

Junior simply blinked back at Washington, opening and closing his mouth repeatedly, as if trying to ask a very important question. “Come on, let’s see if your dad wants to get up yet.” Wash suggested, scooping Junior up and carrying him to Tucker’s bedside, shaking the father awake. “Hey, Tucker, you ready to get up yet?”

"Fuck off…” Tucker mumbled sleepily into his pillows, not even looking at Wash or his baby. “I wanna sleep…”

"You’ve been asleep all day, Tucker. Come on, don’t you wanna play with Junior?" Wash asked, smiling confidently at the man.

“‘S not mine…” Tucker fibbed, rolling over, face smothered deeper into his little blanket cocoon. “I was never in that village, I swear.”

”Tucker, I literally watched you have this demon baby, so man up or shut up.” Wash declared, gaining a bit of sass as he held the baby up to Tucker’s face. “Just own up and respect the fact that you’re a dad now.”

"Fuck that, just… put it back where you found it, man.” Tucker ordered, seemingly asleep again as snoring filled the air, but Wash knew better.

"Alrighty then, spread ‘em." Wash in turn ordered, moving to the foot of the bed as he held Junior up to Tucker’s feet. "Let’s put ‘m back in then."

"Wait, what!?” Tucker shot up, fully awake, and glared at Washington, grey eyes glistening with rage and annoyance. “Dude, that was a bitch move.”

"Oh good, you’re awake." Wash simply replied, as if he hadn’t just been about to shove a new born baby up Tucker’s ass. "Junior’s been crying for you on and off. Might wanna fix that."

”Dick. Move.” Tucker muttered, but nonetheless took the baby from Washington’s hold, holding Junior up to his face. “Heya, Junior. You hungry?”

”Scree!” Junior replied, clapping his hands, tiny speaks of purple glittery bits disappearing into the air whenever his palms connected.

"Alrighty then, breakfast it is." Tucker announced, heaving the infant onto his hip as he passed by Wash and into the kitchen. "What’s with the bandages?"

”Epsilon.” Wash deadpanned, joining Tucker in the makeshift kitchen to stand beside him, watching Junior with worried eyes. “Junior stared at him though and… Epsilon hasn’t moved since. And I mean that, he’s like a goddamn ice block.”

”Whatever. If he was messing with Junior, he probably deserved it.” Tucker explained, pulling out a slab of steak from a chest. “God, is this even healthy for babies? I mean, what the fuck do babies even eat?”

"Happiness." Wash suggested. Upon gaining silence, he huffed immaturely. "If York makes a joke, everyone goes nuts, but if I make one, no one even chuckles! I hate this canyon.”

"Dude, I think it’s been that way for way longer than you’ve been in Blood Gulch.” Tucker said, turning back to mashing up the boneless steak and slow-cooking it. “How’re the Freedancers by the way?”

"It’s FreeLANCERS. And they’re fine, but… I think they want me to live with them again.” Wash admitted, staring at Tucker.

Tucker paused, turning to look at Wash. “But you’re not, right?” He asked, then laughed outright. “That’d be fucking ridiculous.”

Wash frowned, squinting his eyes at Tucker. “How is that ridiculous? I lived with them for years before I ended up in Blood Gulch. In fact, it seems reasonable.”

”Well… it’s just a dumb idea.” Tucker announced, glaring at the food he was cooking. “You know what? Can you just… whatever, I don’t care what you do! I don’t care if you’re helpful, or intelligent, or the nicest guy I’ve ever met! I don’t fucking care!”

It was dead quiet, Junior looking from one man to the other, pink eyes wide with surprise and curiosity. “… Do you want me to step out for a few minutes?” Wash asked, feeling uncomfortable.

Tucker sighed, nodding as he turned back to the steak. “Uh… yeah. I just… need some time, ya know? There’s been alot of shit going on… I got a kid now, and, I think I might be rethinking my life or some shit. It’s weird.”

"It’s not weird, at least… I don’t think it’s weird, Tucker." Wash told him, walking out the door once again that day. "I’ll be back soon… later.”

”Later.” Tucker repeated, Junior crawling onto his shoulders, despite being a newborn. Once Washington was gone, Tucker groaned, smacking his own head with the spatula in his hand. “… Should’ve said it, Vern. Should’ve fucking said it.”

…

For about an hour, Washington laid on the grass outside Blue Base, staring with no intention of looking away at the sky. It was getting late, he knew that much, but a party was going to take place soon. Now that things had cooled down, York had insisted on throwing a 'We Found Our Once Misplaced Wash' party, which would take place in the middle of a well-torched Blood Gulch. Said misplaced Wash sighed to himself, finding his life to be way too complicated, and considered narrating to himself to blow off some steam. He tisked it away though, not nearly focused enough to do it. Or was he too focused? He had no clue.

It didn’t take long for someone to notice him, not that Wash was overly concerned with being noticed, but nonetheless, someone did and they gingerly laid beside him. For a long time, far too long to be normal, Wash didn’t look at them, until his curiosity won over and he rolled over. It was Texas, sky blue eyes matching the space of blue above their heads, her breaths coming out in soft puffs of white, natural smoke. She was like a dragon, words like magma on her tongue with too many ideas coming out at once, yet those words could turn to smoke and intoxicate you, wrap around you and-

Wash had no idea if those comparisons were appropriate, so he stopped thinking on them so heavily.

"It’s cold out here." Tex mumbled, not looking at Wash, making him feel… safe. She wasn’t pushing it, wasn’t pushing for eye-contact like the others unknowingly did. Wash had no idea if it was for her benefit or his.

"It really is." Wash replied, because thanking her would be way too weird, far too awkward to say. "You gonna be okay?"

Tex nodded, and the corner of her mouth turned upward on her face, a strand of blonde hair almost blocking it. “I’ll be fine… me, Church, and the Reds got a surprise for you. ‘Lina pointed us in the right direction for a mine… we hit the goddamn jackpot, Wash.”

Wash sat up then, eyebrow raised at the woman. “Oh really? I’ve never been a real mining-nut, if you don’t mind me saying. York and Maine are super into that stuff though.”

"Oh no, it’s nothing quite like that… you just wait and see, Wash. You and everyone else are gonna get one Hell of a surprise at this party.” Tex promised, jumping to her feet, turning to grin at her companion. “And thanks for letting me lay with you… haven’t gotten the chance to in a long time.”

"No problem. Thanks for sitting with me." Washington replied, standing up beside Tex. He was taller than her, almost a whole head taller. It made him uncomfortable for no particular reason.

"See you at your party, Wash." Tex yelled over her shoulder, already running off, before Wash could even say goodbye.

And, for a moment, Tex reminded Wash of a mother he hardly remembered… he had no idea why though. He supposed, also, that there were alot of things he didn’t have a clue about. But maybe if he waited for awhile, and didn’t force it… then things might go right after all.

Yeah. He could give that a try.

…

"Happy birthday, Washingtub!"

”Caboose, it’s not-“

"Shut the fuck up, North! Caboose, you do as you damn well please. It can be everyone’s birthday if you want it to be! North, go fuck yourself with a used dildo.”

”South!”

"I’m just saying…”

Washington smiled fondly as he walked through the party, it being held in the middle of the canyon in the dead of night, hundreds of torches keeping monsters at bay. Several times already, South and Carolina had almost killed Andy, who’d cussed them out in Creeper (Carolina didn’t understand any of it. South did. It was BAD). However, the party still went amazingly, the twins having set it up, being birthday party masters, according to York. Wash was sat up on top of a snack table, watching from afar as Sarge demonstrated how to turn a Flint ‘n Steel into a flamethrower.

After only a moment, Wash felt someone sit next to him, and he at first thought it to be Tex, also attempting to avoid big crowds. But upon actually looking, Wash did not find Texas, clad in heavy black armor, but instead found Tucker, dressed in messy old leather armor dyed an ugly teal color. Wash knew it was ugly… but he didn’t think it was very often, not anymore, not after seeing it everyday for months and months. Tucker was watching as well, Wash being able to see that Tucker wasn’t as focused on Sarge as he was Junior, who was sitting on South’s shoulders for a piggyback ride.

"She might seem like a bitch sometimes, but she’s good with kids.” Wash felt it was good to tell Tucker this, as to keep him from worrying too much. “You can trust her.”

"It’s not easy, dude." Tucker announced, sighing as he stared at his own goddamn kid. "I just… it’s so fucking weird, having a kid. I mean, I used to not give two shits about having kids, but… now that I actually have one… it’s so fucking weird, Wash.”

"I would assume so. You doing better now?" Wash asked, leaning closer to Tucker, the odd apple cider drink in his hand held just a bit tighter.

"Uh, yeah, I am actually. Sorry I got so dramatic earlier… still dealing with really odd shit, and I’m freaking out a little." Tucker admitted, looking ashamed in himself.

"You don’t need to be upset at yourself, Tucker. I mean… we all have shit days, ya know? And sometimes, we have shit months, but good things can come out of those.” Wash explained, telling himself somewhere in his head that he was not the man to explain this sort of thing. Carolina was better at talking, not him.

"You’re right about that." Tucker agreed, smiling at Junior as the Endermen-Human hybrid giggled when Sarge almost lit himself on fire, high-fiving South as the blonde woman laughed along with him.

Just as Wash was about to maybe, I dunno, finally get his goddamn act together and ask Tucker out, Tex got on top of one of the tables, clapping her hands. “Hey, everyone, can I have your attention?” Once everyone was staring at her, Tex grinned and nodded at the miners. “Great. Alright, so me and the Reds came across something quite interesting while on our mining trip today, and we’ve got a big surprise for ya. Church?”

Church stepped forward, holding Sarge’s Flint ‘n Steel. “Thank you for that shitty ass introduction, Tex. Now then, I’m going to explain the science behind this shit… because science is kickass. So then, to begin, this block-“

"This isn’t the science fair, dumbass! Just tell us about the goddamn block!” Carolina ordered, glaring at the Zombie, unimpressed by his performance.

Church, in turn, stuttered uncontrollably, before flailing his arms in the air and falling to the ground, looking like a misplaced rag-doll.

"… Wow.” Connie deadpanned, tisking at Church’s limp body. “Are you seriously throwing a tantrum right now?”

"… No.” Church mumbled, appearing as a ghost above the Zombie. “Just, kinda freaked out internally. Running this thing ain’t easy, ya know. Me and Tex had to hunt down my dead Zombie ass for three days straight… not fun.”

"So are you gonna explain what the fuck you found or not!?” South yelled, Junior yelling with her on her shoulders. “Just tell us already!”

"Fucking fine!” Tex screamed back, ripping off a blanket from on top of… a Nether Portal. “Here’s what we fucking found, happy assholes!? I’m gonna go make Iron Swords before we go…” Tex stomped off, looking like an angered tabby cat.

The group stared at the portal, all with very wide eyes. “Is… is it safe?” Carolina asked, not looking very sure of herself for once. “I mean, I’ve heard of the Nether, but… I don’t know if it’s safe to go in there.”

”Nether to worry, my dear!” York yelled, grinning at his girlfriend. “We’ll just have to go and see!”

Everyone groaned at York’s pun, making anyone who happened to come by Blood Gulch and see them think twice before entering the canyon.

…

A/N: Hope you guys like this, and I’ve got a SUPER special announcement for you all!

Starting now, and up until a month after the last chapter of Nether Worry, I am holding a contest to see who can make the best fanart for the fic, seeing as I know many people have been reading it thus far! So, here’s the rules:

1\. All entries must be submitted to Tumblr, and placed under the tag #rvb minecraft au

2\. Anyone can enter, but must have a Tumblr account in order to fulfill rule number one.

3\. Please message me on Tumblr or on a site I have this fic on when you post your art, though this is not required or you, it would be greatly appreciated.

4\. All participants will have their art placed in the story on AO3 (Jujukind will be assisting me with it).

5\. You can draw anything, as long as it’s from the Minecraft AU and not yaoi. You can draw anything from an actual scene to a comic, or even just one of the characters in their armor.

6\. At the end of the contest, I’ll pick out my top five favorites, to which I will write them all RvB fanfiction.

7\. Writing is also optional, though it will not be posted in Nether Worry on AO3

8\. That’s about it. Have fun!

~Supercasey.


	10. Part 10

Nether Worry

Part 10

Pairing: Agent Washington/Tucker, Caboose/Church, Grif/Simmons

Description: In which the Reds and Blues come across a lonely Creative Mode dweller, Sarge makes about ten times more Iron Golems than are strictly necessary, and where Tucker learns that Wash is indeed not a replacement for Church and that may or may not be a bad thing after all.

A/N: Merry Christmas, you surprisingly clean animals.

...

Sarge stared with wide eyes at the portal as the silence continued, before he chinned up, a cocky look entering his ocean blue eyes. “Well, come on, boys! Let’s show these here kids how it’s done!” The old man strutted towards the purple portal, that grin all too terrifying, reminding Wyoming briefly of Florida.

Very reluctantly, the Reds started to follow, even Grif did, but Washington stepped into their path, eyes wide with worry. “Stop!” He ordered, Stone Sword drawn in-case they tried anything. “Let’s think about this before we charge into danger!”

Carolina nodded at her younger brother. “Good call, Wash. It should be the Freelancers who investigate first. We have more experience in high stress situations.”

”Experience!? You fuckers had limitless lives! Emphasis on the had!” Church pointed out, looking very much offended. “Try living in a Zombie and see how that goes for ya, princess!”

"You wanna say that again, corpse boy?” Carolina asked, getting up in Church’s face, though she had to look up a considerable distance. “You really wanna start shit?”

"You start something with him, you start it with me too, kid." Tex promised, stepping in-between Church and Carolina, stormy eyes bearing into Carolina. "Pull out the sword. Come on, kiddo. Let’s go a few rounds. See if you’re that mouthy when you’re eating dirt."

"Girls, calm down." North ordered, looking ready to step in himself, though he appeared a bit scared to do so.

"Will you quit fucking mothering everyone already!?" South asked, glaring daggers at her brother. "This ain’t your fight, North!"

"Everyone calm down!” York yelled over the arguing, taking his teammates by surprise. “Look, it’s late and we’re tired as shit from building, so let’s calm our asses down and NOT kill each other. Carolina, you’ve got a point, we are better at fighting, but the Reds and Blues also got extra lives to spare. We gotta be careful.”

"York’s right. We need to calm down and figure this all out." Connie agreed, picking up scattered sticks, cutting off some of them at perfect angles. "I’ve got an idea. We’ll draw sticks and match off into pairs, and no trading sticks. We enter as a unit, while the pair with the shortest sticks stay put, in-case shit goes south and we need a rescue squad. Also, someone’s gotta watch Tucker’s kid."

"Good plan, lass," Wyoming mumbled, taking a stick obediently. "And how shall we go about this little adventure?"

"We all rest for tonight. Tomorrow, we head into the Nether. Whoever stays behind should have at least one Flint ‘n Steel, in-case all of our’s break. Only come back if you need to… we’ll stock up and head out at dawn." Connie explained further, handing out the sticks until she had the last one. "Alright… pair up."

After twenty minutes of arguing, the teams all formed, but just to make sure no one forgot whose team they belonged to, York wrote out the pairings.

Tucker - Washington

Wyoming - Sarge

Caboose - North

Texas - South

Simmons - Church

Connie - Grif

Carolina - Donut

York - Doc

Maine - Lopez

"Alright… I think I’ve got everyone.” York announced, smirking as he looked the chart over carefully. “Looks pretty damn solid, with Tuckington staying put and the rest of us heading into the Nether.”

"Wait, wait, wait… did you just call us 'Tuckington'?” Tucker asked, grinning real wide as Wash blushed down to his neck. “The everliving fuck is with that, man?”

"It’s what we call your guy’s Gay-Romance behind your backs." South admitted, getting elbowed by North as a result. She glared at him with faked disgust in her eyes. "I am so glad we’re not paired together tomorrow.”

"I will be like you if you want me to, Miss East!" Caboose promised, smiling hopefully at South. "I do not want Mister West to be sad without you."

"Aw, that’s sweet, Caboose. But I think North’ll be okay." South assured the other, patting him on the back. "Wish you could be on my team… aw well, just take care of North, ‘kay? He’s fucking sensitive as dicks, like, he can’t take a punch."

"I can confirm that." York shouted out from where he was chattering on with Doc, who he was obviously hesitant to travel for hours to even days with.

"Which bit? That dicks are sensitive or that North can’t take a punch?" Church asked, looking curious either way.

"Um… both!?” York suggested, not remembering which it was, but they were both probably true either way. “I don’t fucking know. Anyhow… let’s go the fuck to bed, I’m beat.”

"What, you and Carolina fuck under the snack table a little too hard?" Connie surprisingly inquired, much to the delight of South.

"So THAT was the bumping!” Donut yelled out, looking horror struck, yet oddly relieved. “Oh thank Steve, I thought I’d stepped in during a Grimmons thing again!”

”Grimmons!?” Church squeaked, his voice going up an octave out of confused anger/disbelief. “What is with all of these fucking ship names? What’s the damn point?”

"Um… comedy?” Simmons suggested, not the least bit affected by Donut’s reference to he and Grif’s relationship, much less the sex and ship name. “I’m so fucking used to it, I hardly notice anymore.”

"I’m so fucking done with everything, I’m just gonna lay down and nap for, like, ever.” Wash admitted, walking away towards Blue Base. “I’m gonna go sleep before someone blows something up at daybreak.”

"But no ones seen our fireworks display yet!" Sarge screamed, looking really, really excited about the fireworks.

"Aw, well, I guess I can stay for a few more minutes…" Wash mused, a bit excited to see the fireworks. He hadn’t seen fireworks in so long… would they still be the same as before?

Hell fucking no. This is Nether Worry, not a fucking Christmas Miracle.

"Thata boy, Wash! Alright, Dakotas! You got it ready!?" Sarge asked through a walky talky, even though South and North were, you know, right fucking there.

"Yes, sir!” North shouted back through the device, pulling out a big remote with a big, red button in the middle. “You ready, sis?”

With a nod, the twins hit the button at the same time, eyes both big and happy… and full of murder.

It was quiet for a long time… until of course, the mountain quite a ways away from Blood Gulch exploded, making Sarge and the twins cackle like mad scientists. Everyone reacted like their fellow teammates:

*Freelancer Screaming*

*Blue Team Sobbing*

*Red Team Mixed Results*

…

Washington awoke that night with a minor headache, mainly because the baby had awoken and was crying up a storm. Hearing Tucker starting to get up, he muttered a quiet 'I've got it', knowing Tucker desperately needed the sleep. Sitting up, Wash scrubbed at his sandy eyes, groaning under his breath at his own exhaustion. It was late, around two or three in the morning, and the others wouldn’t be up for at least five more hours. Ignoring his own need to rest, Wash walked over to the wooden/wool crib the twins had built a few days after Junior had been born, reaching in and scooping up said Endermen-Human baby.

The miner/Freelancer held the baby cautiously. Not because he was scared Junior would hurt him, but because he really wasn’t that experienced with kids. Yes, he’d seen a few Villager kids and even one or two miner kids, but not many. Not to mention Zombie babies… dear God, those things were wicked fast, but Wash rushed those thoughts away. He focused more on the crying baby, rocking Junior in a monotonous yet comforting manner. Wash bit back a yawn, the rocking making him tired as well.

As Junior calmed down, Wash tiptoed to one of the more cold double-chests, mainly used to store their colder foods. Digging around with one arm, the other holding Junior against his chest, he grabbed a bucket of milk, placing it on top of the kitchen table. Quiet enough to keep from waking up the others, Wash grabbed a wooden bowl, pouring a bit of the milk inside the bowl. After filling it half-way, he grabbed his Flint ‘n Steel, holding it close to the milk. Knowing it’d be a few minutes before it was warm enough for Junior, Wash took a seat at the table, patting Junior’s back to keep him from waking up the whole canyon.

"Pretty noisy tonight, huh Junior?" Wash asked, starting a one-sided conversation with the baby. It was so easy to just talk to Junior… no awkwardness, no differing opinions, just a little human who was willing to listen to him… Wash figured he liked kids. "Sorry if our yelling scared you earlier… adults are really weird. We always argue."

"Not that we always argue… we just do it a lot." Wash continued, rocking Junior more as the milk began to warm further. "I wish we didn’t, but we do. You’re such a lucky kid, Junior. You have the best daddy ever, and you get so many uncles and aunts. I wish I had had so many people watching me as a kiddo, or at least a better dad, but the past is the past. Don’t you worry about anything, Junior. We’re all gonna take such good care of you, the whole lot of us."

Picking up the bowl carefully, Wash poured a few drops on his bare arm. Just right. Holding it up to Junior, the hybrid opened his mouth obediently, taking a grip on the edge of the bowl with his mouth as Wash tipped it ever-so slightly. Junior made a tiny, odd purr noise, which Wash couldn’t deny he loved to hear. It always felt nice, knowing he’d fulfilled a need for the baby, especially whenever it showed and Junior would just smile so sweetly at him- goddammit, the kid had his dad’s smile alright. Just as Junior finished, Wash heard shuffling from the ladder to the downstairs bedrooms, looking over to see Tex.

Tex had her hair down for once, reminding Wash for a split second of- She was so beautiful, blonde hair running like a river down her back, covering the star tattoo. She smiled so sweetly at him, her greyish blue eyes staring down at him with such intensity and trust- he shook his head, escaping that frame of mind. Tex was not in any way Washington’s mother… didn’t mean she didn’t remind him of her though. Sitting up, Wash looked the blonde over carefully, noticing how she only wore a T-shirt (Church’s) and a pair of way too big pajama pants (Also Church’s).

"You up with the baby?" Tex asked, sitting down across from Wash before he could answer her. "He’s getting bigger."

"Yeah… he really is.” Washington agreed, smiling at Tex. She wasn’t so bad once you got past her rough exterior. “You wanna hold him or… ?”

”Naw,” Tex waved the man off, her eyes half-lidded as she watched the baby steadily. “You ever wonder if this kids gonna be trouble once he gets bigger?”

”Maybe… but, I’d rather just take things one step at a time, ya know? I just… he’s fine right now, and that’s good enough.” Wash explained, noticing that Junior had fallen asleep. “I’m gonna put him to bed- you need anything?”

"I was just up to check on Junior, then I was gonna go see how South is. Me and her are partners, and we both agreed we should go out and practice on some monsters before tomorrow morning." Tex explained, standing up and pulling on Church’s old jacket, one that he probably didn’t need anymore.

"You should sleep, Tex." Wash advised, setting Junior gently down in the crib, tucking him in as the baby curled on his side, snoozing delicately. Wash couldn’t help but smile, before he turned to Tex, looking sternly at her. "There’s no telling what’ll happen tomorrow morning, and it’s dangerous to lose sleep."

"I’ll be fine,” Tex promised, pulling the hood up- it made her look younger, a bit cuter if Wash admitted it to himself. “You should worry more about yourself.”

"I can’t help it; I care about my friends." Wash replied, yawning loudly before crawling into his chilled bed. "You stay safe, okay?"

"Got it." Tex clipped out, before walking out the front door, leaving Washington to rest sleepily in his bed, soon falling fast asleep.

Washington, one day, would find out that a girl like Tex had once said 'I'll be fine' to his own father. Unlike the Tex he knew, the other Tex never came back from her training. This one did. That became the sole difference for both daughter and son in coming years, that this Tex was not exactly like their mother, but very close. She was close, but she wasn’t her. This time, in this universe, there wasn’t any place for obsession to form between Beta and the Director. They would never know how lucky they were to have that.

…

"Should we wake them up?" Church asked, staring down at the sleeping forms that were Washington and Tucker, both passed out in opposite beds.

"No, I do not think we should. If we do not say goodbye, we will not be gone, and they will not be sad then." Caboose explained his logic, giving the two sleeping men a sad look.

Carolina walked in, having heard Caboose’s explanation. “I heard that, and that’s bullshit. Leave a note.” She ordered, before leaving them be.

After writing a quick note as ordered to, Church and Caboose dashed outside to join the others, all prepped and ready for combat need it be. Sarge even had Lopez with him, though Carolina had previously warned him that wolves had a hard time in the Nether, he hadn’t really accepted her information, proclaiming Lopez to be a 'special' kinda wolf. He sorta was, to Sarge’s defense, as anything other than white wolves were a rarity, and Lopez’s coat was a muddy brown. He was truly an oddity. Approaching the teams, Church took his place beside Simmons, Caboose doing the same with North. All ready to depart, everyone looked to Carolina for a speech or for the battle cry.

Before Carolina could open her mouth though, Connie was, surprisingly, the girl to speak up. “LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLets FIGHT!” She screeched, grabbing Grif’s hand and practically dragging him through the portal.

"Well, that’s my cue." Donut decided, gently taking Carolina’s offered hand and skipping through the Nether Portal with her.

"What nerds.” Tex announced, walking right on over to the portal, not seeming to care if South followed or not. “We’ll show ‘em whose boss.”

"Fuck yeah we will!” South agreed, enthusiastic as Sarge when given a new Sword as she entered behind her teammate.

Speaking of Sarge, he and Wyoming argued continuously as they walked through the portal, never breaking eye-contact with each other as they traveled through the purple mist.

Maine whistled at Lopez, patting his thigh. He motioned at the portal, to which Lopez loyally followed him through, allowing the Goliath to tie a leash around his red collar and lead them onward.

Caboose grinned as he took North’s hand, both running to the portal, but slowing down as they approached, unsure of how to proceed. They didn’t have to decide, as York happily shoved them in, and grabbed Doc last minute to tumble through with him.

Finally, Church and Simmons left, not daring to hold hands, as they saw no need, after all, the only hand Simmons wanted to hold was already in a whole other world by then. Both taking deep breaths and nodding at each other (They were probably pretending to be in an action movie, the nerds), they jumped into the purple darkness, never looking back.

…

((You thought I was ending it there, didn’t you ;) ?))

As expected, Connie and Grif were the first to awaken in the new realm. Upon waking up though, Grif didn’t even realize he wasn’t in Red Base until he felt the hot coal-like rock beneath him warm his skin at the touch. He hummed, amused by the fluffy feeling of warm that radiated through his body and mind, the netherrack below him keeping him in a daze of sleepy haze. He peeked his eyes open, looking up at the never ending darkness of the cavern with a look of little impression on his face. Looks like Tucker had decided to prank him again, probably buried him underground while he was sleeping, though, it didn’t explain the warmth under him. Was he near lava? The cracking of magma nearby confirmed Grif’s suspicions.

"Grif, get up!" Connie ordered, suddenly appearing in Grif’s line of vision, taking up most of his sight. She shook him, though it hardly even rocked him, as she was much smaller than her part-time partner. "We’re in the Nether! Come on, hurry before something decides to come find us!"

"Go away," Grif ordered in return, rolling over and maneuvering his chubby arms to act as a cool and comfortable pillow in the very warm cave. "I’m trying to sleep. Why don’t you ask Donut to hang out with you?"

"Grif, seriously, you need to get up,” Connie explained, pushing harder at the giant sloth that was Grif. “We should get moving before a wall breaks and lava gets in, or worse! And trust me, you don’t wanna know what worse is.”

"Do YOU even know what worse is?” Grif asked, and upon only getting a few loud grunts from the struggling young girl, he decided to humor her and rolled over, effectively trapping her legs under his greater weight.

”Ow! Get the fuck off me, fatass!” Connie commanded, squirming and spitting like a water-soaked feline or ocelot. Grif chuckled, but obeyed, rolling off of his poor partner. “Look, Grif, do you really wanna find out what lives down here?”

"Kinda. I mean, think about it. Who knows what’s down here? Probably something really badass, like Lava Spiders. God, Donut’s gonna lose his shit if there’re Lava Spiders. Like Cave Spiders weren’t bad enough.” Grif muttered to himself, closing his eyes in thought.

Connie sighed, shaking her head. Why the fuck did SHE have to take the lazy one? Oh well, she mused, pulling out the sheet of paper Sarge had given her the night before. He’d written some advice on how to get Grif going, and Connie smiled deviously as she found the perfect idea. “Oh my God, Grif! Hold still!” Connie yelled in a very well faked panic.

Grif froze up, fear actually beginning to take an effect on him. “What!? What is it, what the fuck is on me, man!?” He asked in a rush, trying oh so very hard not to run his hands all over his clothes to clear them of any Nether-dwelling mobs.

Connie wanted to grin, but held back for the sake of acting out her part. “Whatever you do, don’t move a muscle… don’t panic, okay? There’s… oh man, it’s hideous… there’s a huge, black, disgusting bat on you!”

”BAT!?” Grif screamed so loud, jumping up in a rush and taking off over the netherrack path leading into the midst of the Nether, leaving Connie way behind to eat his dust. For such a big guy, he was fucking fast when he was in a panic.

Giggling like a bad scientist to herself, Connie followed at a much smoother pace, watching Grif exit the caverns of the Nether. Arriving upside with him, Connie looked upon the scenery with big, wide, brown eyes, amazed by the sight. Almost everything was dark above her, but down below and over the edge of the cliff, everything was bright and glowing with lava. The only things above her that weren’t dark were lighted by various collections of Glowstone. Practically burning in the heat of the Nether, Connie trudged on carefully, soon finding Grif face-first on the ground, worn out by his panicked running.

Sitting down beside him, tired from staring at the amazing sights of the Nether, Connie rested her head on Grif’s back, lying down to stare upon the Nether further. In the distance, she could see some sorta more organized structure, a castle maybe? Not much farther off, she could see other groups of her friends, all in very different places, some more hopeless than others. She smiled though, pulling out an empty book she’d brought along with her. She’d be the first to record what truly went on in the fabled Nether, and who knows, maybe she’d find out why the Nether was so special? But before she could even begin writing, Grif was up again, this time, running from a soot colored Skeleton of sorts. Connie sighed internally, following quickly behind.

In her book, this was all that was written: "This is the way the world starts. Not with a bang, but with idiots."

…

A/N: Very silly I think, but it’s still amusing and something progressive. Will write more soon enough, but this is my (Late) Christmas gift to all my readers. Happy Holidays and take good care of yourselves this year!

~Supercasey.


	11. Part 11

Nether Worry

Part 11

Pairing: Agent Washington/Tucker, Caboose/Church, Grif/Simmons

Description: In which the Reds and Blues come across a lonely Creative Mode dweller, Sarge makes about ten times more Iron Golems than are strictly necessary, and where Tucker learns that Wash is indeed not a replacement for Church and that may or may not be a bad thing after all.

A/N: In memory of Monty Oum, you amazing man who I never met in real life, but I sure wish I had. You’re an astounding artist and you will NEVER be forgotten. This is also a present for Valentines Day, so y’all have something to enjoy on this heartfelt day!

...

"This place is amazing.” North Dakota commented as he scoped out the surrounding islands of the Nether with his telescope. “I’ve never even seen any sort of structures like this… what do you think, Caboose?” He glanced up to look beside him, only to find the Blue Team’s rookie long gone. “Caboose? Hey, where are you, buddy?”

The Creative Mode Dweller stood up, dusting himself off as he looked around. He and Caboose had been given the misfortune to spawn in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere, far from the Nether Portal and the rest of the teams. He’d been able to spot South and Tex on the biggest island of the Nether, as well as Connie and Grif. And even more shocking, North had found a huge castle a few miles from he and Caboose’s island. It would definitely be awhile before they would have access to the castle, but North could’ve sworn he’d seen Sarge and Wyoming inside of there. Just the prospect of adventuring in such a remote world had North eager to see more of what the Nether had to offer.

Caboose was, at least, excited, but not nearly as productive as North was trying to be. North had convinced Caboose to try mining up a bit of the netherrack to use as a bridge to the next island a little ways away, but so far, Caboose had been struggling to focus. North couldn’t blame him, after all, he was having trouble focusing too in such a huge, unmapped place such as this. However, he knew they needed to get moving. He’d seen Connie and Grif running from some sort of soot colored Skeleton, which befuddled the oldest twin, having never seen such an oddly colored Skeleton. Personally, and unlike his younger twin sister, North wasn’t exactly keen on meeting the wildlife of the Nether any time soon.

As luck would have it, no mobs of any sort had spawned yet on North and Caboose’s little island, which was considered a blessing to North, who knew how difficult it could be to fight off enemies from such a small area. Unlike Carolina and Wash, North and South hadn’t been born in Creative Mode. Yes, they’d been transferred fairly young to the lands of Creative Mode, but they both remembered their fair share of misfortune from the rest of the Minecraft world. They’d both been six years old upon entering Creative Mode, and already knew how to sword fight, quickly earning themselves a place in the lush lands of Creative Mode. They were both very proud of their place in Creative society.

North shook his thoughts away though, knowing how dangerous it was to daydream when in a dangerous place where Mobs could spawn at any moment. Walking around the island, he continued his search for Caboose. “Caboose? Hello… anyone there?”

Upon calling out, North heard a very muffled reply from some other island not too far off from where he was, but it was too far away to hear properly. “Dammit… where the heck did he go? There isn’t even a lot room to run, much less hide!” The man was growing frustrated as he looked under the netherrack and around the island, unable to find his partner.

After another half hour, North gave up, convinced that Caboose had somehow over the course of North scoping out the Nether escaped the island and had run off to explore the rest of the world. The twin growled under his breath, but choked almost as his eyes met those of an odd creature. The Mob was the size of a normal sized human, making it a bit shorter than North, but it held with it a Golden Sword. The monster had one eye that looked exactly like a pig’s, along with the same skin tone around the area, while the rest of it’s face was that of a Zombie. The Mob was not alone, however, and several others were compiled on the island, surrounding North and keeping him from escaping.

”Uh… heya, fellas.” North tried not to sound so nervous, but dammit all, he’d never seen Zombie-Pigman before! “Um… what brings you here?” The monsters only stared at North, making him swallow weakly. “… I’m going to die here.” He whispered, eyes wide with terror as the monsters closed in on him.

"I knew ‘em, ya know." Sarge said after three hours of straightforward silence with Wyoming, his own hand scratching at his scalp a little too aggressively. "Before he went ‘n got ‘mself dead. I knew ‘em."

Sarge was referring to Florida, or Flowers as he knew him. Flowers had been… an oddity; someone Sarge considered an enemy most of the time. Before the Reds and Blues, and before Blood Gulch, all Sarge could remember was traveling a lot with little human interaction. He’d grown up that way, alone in the world of Minecraft because somebody didn’t want him and decided ‘Fuck it’ and left him somewhere promising they’d be back. Then he’d met Uncle Boxer, a guy who always claimed to be his uncle and more or less raised him. Uncle Boxer… well, Sarge didn’t like to talk about Uncle Boxer much. All anyone really knew was that the guy had done SOMETHING to Sarge as a kid and then had gotten killed. He used to wear blue apparently.

But back on the subject of Flowers. Sarge had met Flowers one day, a long time ago, before he’d found Blood Gulch. He’d gotten himself hurt real bad, was nearly dead when Flowers found him. In Minecraft, it’s not all that unusual to kill off another Miner for their gear when they’re damn near dead (Or perfectly fine), but Flowers… he’d saved Sarge, defended him through the rest of that night, swearing to keep him safe and get him home alive. Thing was, once Sarge was well again, he had no home to go back to. He’d never had a home really, no time for one, too much of his heart set on adventuring. Flowers though, he had just accepted it and offered for Sarge to travel with him. He’d accepted, begrudgingly, one part because Flowers seemed too nice, another part because Flowers wore a lot of blue.

Eventually, they found Blood Gulch and settled there. They took in strays, Sarge taking in Simmons and Grif when they showed up dripping with their own blood, Flowers one day carrying in a knocked out Tucker, and so on and so forth. One day, when the sun had been up high in the sky and the weather had been good, Flowers went into the ravine between the two bases. His team had warned him, claimed it was far too dangerous for a nice guy like him (Minecraft was no place for a nice guy), but Flowers, that damn bastard, he’d gone off and gotten killed down there. At least, he never came back up. They never found a body. Sarge had known him well, knew that Flowers talked about a man, before Sarge, a man named Wyoming who he’d had more than one tale about.

They’d been close, that much was painfully obvious, and for some reason, Sarge felt obliged to tell Wyoming he’d known Flowers. He’d heard them whispering, the Freelancers, about the classic team of Wyoming and Florida. Well, Florida sounded a lot like Flowers, and it wasn’t long before Sarge knew, knew that it was Flowers all along. In the Nether, seemingly lost in some weird giant castle, Sarge felt it fitting to talk to Wyoming about the old Blue Team leader. After all, if Flowers’s stories had been even the least bit true, that meant that he and Wyoming had been close, and not just the best friend kinda close either.

"Who in the bloody Hell are you talking about?" Wyoming asked, but part of him already knew, had anticipated this would come up at some point or another.

"Yer old buddy; Florida. ‘R as I knew ‘em, Captain Flowers. He was a… how do I put it? A piece of shit?" Sarge was, in all retrospect, trying to be nice (Keyword being trying), but it was hard for him. Unplanned programing against the color blue could do that to a man.

"Well, I won’t deny he was a bit… flighty.” Wyoming muttered back, leading Sarge down another long, almost taunting hallway. “But I do believe he was a kind man. Foolish, but kind.”

"Yeah, you can say that again." Sarge agreed, remembering more than one incident caused by Flowers, usually because he felt sorry for a Mob while it tried to rip his bones out. "Crazy Blue bastard…"

"Did he, perhaps, ever mention… me?” Wyoming couldn’t help but ask, a long history with Florida still somewhat fresh in his memory, never having been forgotten.

"Oh yeah! He mentioned ya like you were dead ‘r somethin’ similar.” Sarge explained somewhat cheerfully, smiling more as he remembered his old companion. “Never could shut ‘em up once he got goin’ on ‘bout ya, not to mention his adventurin’. Hell, he once tried to get me ta drink some ‘a that damned tea. Swear to God it was poisoned…”

Wyoming actually laughed outright at this, trying to imagine Florida using those damned puppy-dog eyes on Sarge to convince him to drink tea. He remembered tea time with Florida, one of the few moments where the bastard could shut his mouth for more than five minutes. Those times had been peaceful, but now adays, will all the running around and adventures, Wyoming could hardly get in a cup of tea a day, much less savor it for very long. Part of him missed the way life used to be, before Washington went off and got himself damn near killed, back when everyone was more easy going and less focused on trying to battle monsters. Life had been good back then… but those days were long gone. The Freelancers had gotten an addiction to the thrill promised by limited-lives, and addiction is a hard habit to break.

"Seems you didn’t trust my partner much. Not one bit!" Wyoming pointed out, finding it hard not to smile as he talked with Sarge. For some reason, he couldn’t help feeling good again. The kind of good only Florida ever caused.

"How was I supposed ta!?" Sarge asked, animating his anger as he flailed his arms somewhat hysterically while speaking. "Man was as sketchy as an unfinished cave paintin’!"

Will all of their laughing and carrying on, they hardly noticed where they were going, before Sarge and Wyoming found themselves in a medium sized room, with only a Monster Spawner in the middle of the room. The two men went silent as soon as they entered, a sudden wave of uneasiness filling the air. It was eerily calm in the Nether Brick built room of the castle, and both Wyoming and Sarge could feel eyes watching them, waiting for movement, but when they searched for the owners of the eyes, all they could look to was that tiny, little, Monster Spawner. They swallowed nervous in unison, sharing a look before Sarge, the braver and more life-holding of the two, slowly crept towards the Spawner.

They were dead silent, neither making a sound nor speaking as Sarge came closer and closer to the Spawner, his hands shaking ever so slightly as he held his beloved Iron Sword close to his chest, ready to swing at the slightest hint of a spawn. Finally, Sarge could tiptoe no longer, inches away from the Monster Spawner with nowhere to run. He could actually run, but both he and Wyoming feared it would trigger a spawn. As seconds ticked by, the men only grew more frightful, until finally, Sarge could take no more, and slashed at the Monster Spawner with all his might. The sword made a loud ‘Crack’ as it hit the metal box, and panic-driven adrenaline drove Sarge to continuously hit the Spawner until he couldn’t swing anymore.

The box was in pieces, completely wrecked beyond repair. Just as Wyoming and Sarge let out a sigh of relief, a trapdoor under the remains of the box opened, swallowing up the results of Sarge’s handiwork. In it’s place, a new, perfectly fine Monster Spawner took it’s place; a big ‘Fuck You’ from the Nether. Sarge and Wyoming stared at it, both unable to speak, until an orange/red Blaze appeared from the box, staring at Sarge. No one moved, the Blaze and Sarge seemingly sharing a deep, Mob to Miner moment that was cinematic worthy. But of course, nature is nature and monsters are assholes, so a one minute time-skip led to Wyoming and Sarge screaming bloody murder while running from six to seven Blazes. Karma maybe played a role in this, but Wyoming and Sarge were too busy to dwell on the hypothesis.

...

"The fuck was that?" South asked, eyebrow raised as extremely loud and terrified screaming entered the air, sounding far away yet very distressed.

"Old men not understanding Mobs." Tex promised, unaffected by the screams for some reason, despite the obvious fear in them. "Come on, I think we’re almost to the Nether Castle."

South paused, giving Tex a questioning stare. “Wait, what the fuck is a 'Nether Castle'?” She inquired, taking a moment to rest on a netherrack block.

Tex groaned, taking a seat adjacent from South’s own. “Didn’t you listen to a word I said last night? Whatever. Look, the Nether Castle is supposedly this huge fuck-off structure in the middle of the Nether that, I dunno, might have treasure in it. I’m a bit sketchy on the details. Point is, the Nether has some rare-ass shit and we’re looking for it.”

"Why are we even here anyhow?" South finally asked, her question pointed towards the top of the Nether caverns. "Are we just some kinda ass-wipes, swirling around in a poorly washed toilet overflowing with shit-water, or is there really a God, watching over all our asses and shit? Also, what are we even doing here? What’s the damn point? Bragging rights?”

"Um… I guess?” Tex offered up, not knowing how exactly to respond to South’s sudden outburst, much less her odd description of life.

"Who’re we gonna fucking brag to anyhow? Ourselves? ‘Guess what North’ ‘What little ass-wipe’ ‘I went to the fucking Nether’ ‘No way me too’ ‘I fucking know you stupid shit’! South continued, seemingly entering a conversation with her imaginary image of North, to which Tex used as evidence that the heat was getting to herself and probably South.

”Uh… maybe we should keep going, kid.” Tex admitted, glancing every few seconds over her shoulder, towards where they’d been heading earlier. “Who knows what’s trying to eat our asses out here.”

"And another thing! The shit kinda Mobs are down here? First we saw those fucking orange, floating freeze-pop things, then the flying marshmallow shits with tentacles for legs, and then we met those pig-zombie cross-bred bastards with the butter swords! I swear to God, Jesus decided to just take a giant shit in the Nether and call it a child. Well FUCK the Nether!” South shouted, ignoring Tex completely.

Tex simply stared, unable to describe just what she was feeling towards South. ninety-nine percent of her was seconds away from chopping South’s head off, while the other one percent almost wanted to kiss her. Almost. South looked a little young for her, or old, Tex wasn’t really sure. As Tex silently wondered if it was socially acceptable to both marry and murder South Dakota, a loud boom erupted behind South, making the twin swing around like God had finally fallen from Heaven to deliver her a fist-bump. There was no fist-bump though, to everyone’s disappointment, only the small, lazer red eyes of a massive sized Ghast, staring into South’s very soul. The girl gulped, backing up a step.

"Um… yo.” South managed, her voice losing it’s usual flare and sass, revealing her slightly more nervous tendencies behind the wall of vulgar language she’d built up over the years. “How’s it hanging, man?”

”South…” Tex said slowly, since the slightest of loud noises could trigger a fireball, creeping towards the younger twin, her hand outstretched to make up the distance. “Grab my hand and run. Now.”

South couldn’t move, the Ghast slowly opening it’s mouth, ready to fire. Tex grabbed South in a blur, shoving her harshly out of the way of the Ghast, the fireball blasting like a firework upon Tex’s back. The woman screamed, the burn intense and unyielding before she fell to her knees, back badly burned and smoking still. South didn’t hesitate, scooping Tex into her arms (Tex was surprisingly much shorter and smaller than South) and running as far away from the Ghast as possible, hoping against hope that she could outrun the Mob. Just as South was getting some distance, the Ghast smacked down in front of her, a very rare thing for a Ghast to do, something that puzzled South (She’d had very little interaction with them thus far, but it was pretty obvious that they liked space between themselves and a target).

"Freckles! No! Bad boy! That is not good!” Caboose scolded, appearing from where he’d been holding onto the back of the Ghast’s body, poking his head down from his pet’s head to gaze down at South and Tex. “Oh my Gosh! It is Miss East and Tex! Hello Miss East and Tex!” He waved down at the two women.

”Caboose!?” South asked, absolutely amazed that the young man had found her. “The fuck are you doing here!? And why the Hell did you shoot Tex? Like, I know she’s a bitch and all, but seriously. The fuck, man?”

"I did not do that! Freckles did it!" Caboose explained, referring to the giant beast of a Ghast he rode upon. "He is my friend, and I love him very much. Do you want to fly around the world with us?"

"Um… I’m good.” South replied, adjusting her hold on Tex slightly. “Hey, wait! You got any healing potions? Your fucking pet burned Tex like a marshmallow… guess it wanted a friend. It has shitty taste.”

"Oh no… I do not, Miss East…" Caboose sounded apologetic, drumming his fingers on his pet Ghast’s head to a song stuck in his head, as if it would make him feel better. "I am very sorry. So is Freckles. He is very sorry too."

No matter how much South tried, part of her just couldn’t stay angry with Caboose, though, her worries were still with Tex, who had passed out not long after the fireball exploded on her back. “Okay, look, I need you to take me to Doc then, okay? He brought a lot of potions with him! Can you do that, buddy? Can you fly us to Doc and help Tex?”

Caboose nodded, grinning with delight. “Yes! I can do that! Do not worry, Miss East. I will not let Freckles drop you, and I will be super helpful!”

South smiled a bit, relieved that Tex at least had a chance at survival. “Thanks, buddy. Hey, where’s North by the way? Wasn’t he paired with you before he left?”

”Um…” Caboose seemed to consider his reply as he helped South to climb on top of Freckles, helping get Tex’s unconscious body settled on the Ghast. “I do not know where Mister West went. He was there, and then he was not. I was confused, but then I found Freckles, and he is now my friend!”

That worried South, but again, most of her concerns were with Tex at the moment for obvious reasons. “We’ll need to find my dumbass brother later then. Fucking idiot, probably fell off a cliff-” She stopped, the idea of her twin falling into lava not exactly a great thought to dwell on. “… I think he’ll be fine.” She decided, swallowing around a lump in her throat. “Let’s think positive here.”

"That is a good idea." Caboose agreed, using two ropes to steer Freckles in the direction he believed Doc and York might be, giving Freckles a light pat on the head to get him hovering towards the island. "We will save Tex, Miss East. Do not be scared."

"I’m never scared." South lied, glaring at Caboose, though she held on for dear life around the Blue’s torso, not wanting to slip off of the Ghast and fall into the lava lake below.

"Everyone is scared sometimes, Miss East." Caboose explained, giving South an almost sorry look, as if he was afraid that she didn’t know this. "It is not bad to be afraid, because we have friends and friends make things a lot less scary, even scary ladies that are very strong. Friends can make those scary ladies nice. So you can be scared, Miss East, because I am your friend and I will try to not make you as scared when you should be happy."

South, after hearing Caboose’s explanation, couldn’t help but smile a little, sighing in both exasperation and acceptance as she relaxed around Caboose, enjoying in secret the physical contact the Blue brought. “I guess you’re right, kid. You know, you’re pretty smart for a dumbass. You’re not like other assholes, who always have a bunch of bullshit reasons about crap. That’s why I like you, Caboose. Either you don’t give a shit, or you’ll do it anyways.”

Caboose just nodded, though it was obvious he hadn’t understood half of the dialogue. “Yes, well, I do not know what that means but I am okay with that.”

"Yeah… me too." South agreed, deciding to watch Tex for the rest of the flight, silently wondering if they could really save her.

...

A/N: Like I said, a lot of Nether adventuring this chapter, and the next should be the same, with maybe a scene from Blood Gulch or two to see how Tucker and Wash are fairing on their own. Please R&R, and have an awesome day! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Happy Valentines Day!

~Supercasey.


	12. Part 12

Nether Worry

Part 12

Pairing: Agent Washington/Tucker, Caboose/Church, Grif/Simmons

Description: In which the Reds and Blues come across a lonely Creative Mode dweller, Sarge makes about ten times more Iron Golems than are strictly necessary, and where Tucker learns that Wash is indeed not a replacement for Church and that may or may not be a bad thing after all.

A/N: It’s here, it’s queer, fucking sue me. (Enjoy the chapter <3)

...

"So, like, do you have ANYTHING interesting to talk about?" York asked, trying to walk ahead of Doc as the two made their way closer to the lava lake.

It had been about six hours since they spawned in the Nether, and so far, they hadn't seen all that much. Sure, they'd seen a few Zombie-Pigmen, and one or two Ghasts, but otherwise, there was next to nothing in the Hell-ish environment. Doc was trying to bring more morale to the twosome, but it was pretty obvious that he wasn't the most uplifting person, especially when compared to York. York was a very charismatic person, yet, for whatever reason, he struggled greatly when interacting with Doc. Maybe it was the disappointment of the fact that he was unable to be paired with Carolina, or the fact that he hardly knew Doc, but either way, the two of them were struggling social-wise and something needed to change.

"Well... I know some games we can play while we walk!" Doc eventually responded, looking extremely nervous. It was no secret that he was equally as awkward towards York as York was towards him.

York wanted to groan, but hey, he made the Freelancers play these kinda games when THEY traveled about, so why not humor the poor medic? It was obvious that they could both use the distraction to begin with. "Alright, fine. What game you wanna play?"

Doc thought for a few minutes, before snapping his fingers, smiling proudly at York. "I know! How about we play that word game? You know, the one where each person says a word, and everybody makes a story! Come on, it'll be fun! Okay, I'll start! Seven-"

"Lonely."

"Pioneers."

"Licked."

"Their."

"Cocks."

Doc froze, glaring wholeheartedly at York. "You took that out of the fun zone and straight into inappropriate zone with one word. That was awful."

York threw his hands up, unable to wash away the grin from his face. "Hey, you're the one who said 'their'. What were you expecting? 'Feet'?"

Doc hung his head, pouting at the ground. "... Maybe. You could've at LEAST kept it tame though! I know there're no kids here, but it's important to keep everyone thinking positively!"

"What if having positive thoughts involves inappropriate jokes in mixed company?" York asked, grinning as Doc shot him a slightly exasperated look of defeat.

"Then I feel very sorry for your friends." Doc decided, rolling his eyes at York's childish behavior. "Okay, how about another game? And this time, don't curse or say lewd language please. Okay, let's play ABC Words, where you go alphabetically saying a word for each letter, back and forth. I'll start: Apple."

"Beautiful."

"Coconuts."

"Dog."

"Espresso."

"Freelancer."

"Guacamole!"

"Is there a good reason why you keep using foods?" York asked, before his stomach growled, followed by Doc's. "Oh... guess we haven't eaten in awhile, huh?"

"I wanted to take a snack break a little while ago..." Doc defended, already pulling off his backpack and digging out two packaged pork-chops. "Come on over here, we can rest until we're done eating."

"Alright, whatever you say." York agreed, walking back over to Doc to sit beside him, taking one of the pork-chops with a small 'thank you'. "So-" He began, in-between bites of his lunch. "-I hate to ask, but how come you haven't just found another village, like the one you were in before? It's not that we don't want ya, it's just been on my mind since we got here.”

"Oh, well, the village I was from was full of gossipers... other villages know my face now." Doc explained, shivering at the thought. "They're not exactly lining up for my help anytime soon. I didn't try to cause trouble, really, it just sorta... happened..."

"Hey, Zombie Poisoning happens, dude." York replied, shrugging it off. "I mean, sometimes I fuck up, and yeah, everyone gets pissed at me, but it's all good. We're all okay, so it's not like it really matters if I fuck up, as long as we're all okay in the end."

"That's a... surprisingly knowledgeable input." Doc decided, finishing his pork-chop. "Man, I feel like we're just filler characters for some kinda author right about now... kinda feel like they wanna move on, but can't. Ya get what I'm saying?"

"I guess so." York muttered, still chomping down on his food. "Man, no offense- okay, this is totally offensive- but I wish I'd gotten paired with Lopez, Red Team's puppy..."

"... That 'puppy' is a fully grown, vicious, uncontrollable wolf that has bitten, like, everyone but Junior." Doc pointed out, feeling it was necessary to tell York this.

"Yeah... what a good puppy..." York mumbled, finally giving the author an excuse to move onto someone else.

...

Maine walked in silence behind Lopez, the brown wolf running ahead of him, which was no real surprise. Really, who in God's name thought it was a good idea to take Lopez away from Sarge? It just wasn't a very tactical decision. The wolf was too intent on finding Sarge to even notice Maine, which Maine didn't seem to mind one bit. He was more of an ocelot person, and was more focused on finding the others than dog-sitting. Not too unfortunately for him, he and Lopez had spawned right in front of a Nether Castle. Lopez seemed pleased, sniffing the place out, while Maine was more or less neutral on the matter... he was neutral about a lot of things, wasn't he? No matter, he usually left the others to react to situations that needed reacting to.

"Arf! Arf arf arf!" Lopez barked out of nowhere, bolting down one of the corridors, leaving Maine completely in the dust behind him.

Officially pissed, mainly (Heheh) because Lopez had managed to kick boiling hot gravel onto Maine's bare arms, Maine took off after the hound, intent on making it pay for abandoning him without even a hint of hesitation, as well as burning him. However, as Maine spun the corner, he came face to face with what he could only describe in short, jumbled growls that more or less expressed that the Mob looked like a blacksmith had tried to make iron rods, but it had been on a summoning circle, and had instead made a hot metallic-like creature. The Blaze watched Maine, studying the humongous miner. Behind the Blaze, Lopez had found Sarge, running circles excitedly around his owner while Sarge was held bridal-style in Wyoming's arms, both shaking like leaves still stuck to the trees in fall.

"Hello." The Blaze finally greeted, surprisingly calm. It looked around, eyes focused on the ground, before re-meeting Maine's eyes, black and dotted, like a Dalmatian's fur coat. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Sigma. And who mi-"

Maine interrupted Sigma (Wow. Fucking rude.) and screamed in a garbled mess, running away at full speed, pure terror in his eyes, because who the fuck made it so Mobs could talk? Church was understandable, but this thing!? Maine was done. He was done, because what the fuck. Thoughtfully, Sigma floated after Maine, not acting nearly as aggressive towards him as he had Sarge and Wyoming. Said old men watched the Blaze leave, Sarge holding even tighter to Wyoming, too shocked and afraid to let go. Lopez, finally tired out by all his barking, running, and searching, curled into a ball at Wyoming's feet, pleased that he'd finally sought out and returned to his possibly mentally ill owner. He fell asleep within a few seconds.

"... Wyomin'?" Sarge began, voice unsteady as he tried to calm down, but found it rather difficult to do so. "Did... did that there Mob jus' start talkin'?"

"... Afraid so, mate." Wyoming admitted, just as scared and shocked as Sarge was. They stood there for a long time, neither moving. The Nether indeed was a strange, strange place.

...

Meanwhile, in Blood Gulch...

"Tucker, have you seen my yellow T-shirt?" Washington asked, a towel tightly wrapped around his waist as he exited the lake, looking to Tucker for an answer. It was terribly cold outside, but Wash had desperately needed a bath. "I could've sworn I brought it out here with me..."

Tucker, who was sun bathing (How the fuck do you sunbathe in winter?) on the shore of the pitiful lake behind Red Base, gave Wash an unimpressed look. "Which one? The one with the cat on it?" Upon earning a nod, Tucker winced. "Uh... yeah, funny thing... Junior peed on it."

Wash was, surprisingly, very calm. "Then where is it? I'm already in here, I may as well wash it." He decided, internally congratulating himself for reacting so calmly. He was trying to get better at that, especially with the baby around.

Tucker, again, looked extremely nervous upon hearing Wash's reply. "Heheh... other funny thing about that... ya see, I ran outta clean clothe diapers and they're all soaking in the lake, so I figured since it's already pissed on... yeah, you'll never want that back, like, ever."

"Why!?" Wash screeched. 'Try' is a loose word around Blood Gulch.

"Like I said, he's outta diapers." Tucker reminded the blond, who was red with rage, freckles standing out on his blushing skin. "Did anybody ever tell you that your freckles are really prominent when you blush? 'Cus they are."

"Why would you give him my T-SHIRT!?" Wash repeated. Again, 'try' is a very, very loose term. Can't count on it. "There are plenty of OTHER clothe items you could've used! Why not use one of those!?"

"It was already pissed on!" Tucker repeated, not nearly as distressed by the situation as his partner. "God, you sound like an old man. Next you're gonna be asking where your prune juice is. Ya need me to find your wheelchair, gramps?"

It was, at that point, non-negotiable to talk Washington out of chasing after Tucker, who honestly deserved it at this point. Nonetheless, Tucker groaned as he took off, Junior playing in the sand as he ran from the wet, angered Freelancer. He wondered if the others were dealing with nearly as much bullshit...

...

"Is she gonna be okay or not, fuck-face!?" South demanded to know, glaring daggers at the zombie she'd come to know as 'Asshole' or 'Church'.

"Hey, calm your ass down, highlights!" Church ordered, giving South a cross look. Not too far away, behind a blue curtain, Simmons was treating Tex's burns. "I'll know when you know! Why don’t you fuck around with Caboose while you wait?"

South huffed angrily, tempted to punch Church right in the mouth for calling her 'highlights', but thought better of it, considering Church was Simmons’s nurse and was still needed. Defeated and enraged, South stomped outside of the cobblestone house Church and Simmons had made, taking a seat on the netherrack outside with disdain written into her like ink on paper. Caboose was flying close by on Freckles, seemingly content with all that was going on around him. Noticing that South had left the house, Caboose floated down to the island the house was located on, using a lead to tie Freckles down to a netherrack post he'd made. With Freckles handled, Caboose practically skipped over to South, taking a seat in front of the upset woman, who had her knees drawn up with her arms wrapped around them like a barrier.

Caboose smiled, but even his happy-go-lucky attitude was failing to lift South's spirits. Concerned about his friend, Caboose tilted his head, pouting at the older woman. South glared at him, making Caboose falter, as he was unused to South's rage/anger being focused on him. Now convinced that she needed his assistance, Caboose tried a new angle. He made a grab for South's cheeks, but the blonde recognized what he was trying to do, and shuffled away, refusing to look him in the eyes, as she knew she would be defeated if she did. This made Caboose laugh, the blue miner standing up and walking around to face South again, this time successful as he grabbed her cheeks somewhat gently, making cute noises as he squished her cheeks affectionately.

Finally, South couldn't help herself, and laughed outright at Caboose's antics. "Goddammit, Caboose! You ruined my bad mood! Can't ya let me brood in peace?" She tried to sound angry, but such a task was now impossible.

Caboose grinned, laughing much more loudly than South. "I am sorry, Miss East!" He apologized, though he hardly sounded sorry. "I do not like it when you are sad and angry, so I made you happy again!"

South chuckled, wiping away a tear from her eye that she was certain had been from her laughter. "Well, for what it's worth... thanks. It's a lot better than being told that I'm being fucking stupid being pissed off."

"Everybody gets grumpy, Miss East." Caboose pointed out, helping South to her feet, only to surprise her with a big, warm hug. "Even I get a little grumpy sometimes, but not as much as Church. He gets SUPER grumpy!"

"The grumpiest." South agreed, shivering once Caboose finally let go. She liked it when he hugged her, it made her feel warm and happy inside instead of angry and stressed out. It was just another thing to add to the list of reasons why South liked Caboose.

"Hey, assholes!" Church called, standing in the doorway of the cobblestone house. "Simmons just finished patching Tex up! She's starting to come to!"

With that said, both South and Caboose hightailed it for the house, entering in a rush. South was behind the curtain first, eyes wide as she stared down at Tex. Tex had her eyes barely open, and her breathing sounded labored, but otherwise, she seemed okay. Her waist and chest were wrapped up securely, her breasts being allowed a bit more lee-way to breathe properly. The blonde brightened once South entered the room, a wiry smirk lifting South's spirits. She'd made it, and it looked like she'd be okay. South slowly walked to her bedside, ignoring Church's arguing outside as he and Simmons attempted to make Caboose stay put in order to give South and Tex some time alone to talk.

Even as South stared at Tex, she could tell that the blonde wasn’t doing nearly as well as either woman hoped. Still though, Tex smirked as South came inside, making the lump in South’s throat dissipate almost immediately. “How you doing, Tex?” South asked hesitantly, watching the other woman for any signs of pain or discomfort.

“How am I doing? How the fuck are YOU doing, kid?” Tex asked back, making South sigh with relief. At least Tex was still going strong. “I swear to Steve, you scared the shit outta me back there!”

South chuckled awkwardly, scratching behind her head as she waved Tex’s question off. “Dude, I’m fucking fine as Hell. You scared the fuck outta me getting yourself damn near blown like a dick!”

Tex laughed outright at this, but winced as the bandages squeezed at her gut. “Ow.” She muttered, rubbing her belly through the bandages. “Fucking Ghast… if I ever find out which one did it, I’m blowing it’s ass to Kingdom Kong!”

South paled, swallowing with a nervous laugh. “Uh… funny thing, turns out the Ghast is Caboose’s… new best friend?” she had no idea how to break it to Tex, considering that she was well aware of how angry Tex would be at Caboose once she was all better. “But it ain’t Caboose’s fault! He even saved your life!”

Tex growled something intangible under her breath, but nodded nonetheless, accepting South’s answer, even if it wasn’t to her liking. “Guess you’re right, the kid ain’t like that… think I can still get away with setting it on fire when he isn’t looking?”

South laughed again, brought into a better mood, thanks to Tex. “I fucking doubt it, Miss I’m-gonna-try-and-be-Jesus-and-sacrifice-myself.”

“I think I can, Miss I-have-a-soft-spot-for-trains!” Tex sassed back, her own face lighting up as South’s face turned cherry red. It was really quite comedic how red South could get when embarrassed or agitated.

“Shut up, it’s the doctor’s orders.” South ordered, taking a seat in an empty chair by Tex’s bed. As much as she wanted to continue running around the Nether, she knew full well that Tex desperately needed to rest and recover before they could go.

“I don’t think Simmons has the guts to tell me to shut up.” Tex pointed out, but nonetheless lied down on her bed to get some sleep. She wanted nothing more than to get out of bed and fight something, preferably a Ghast, but she supposed kicking it with South wasn’t so bad.

“Whatever, just shut up and sleep.” South suggested, letting out a loud, long yawn that could challenge the scream of an Endermen. “Night, Miss Sacrifice.”

“Night, Soft-Spot.” Tex countered, letting out a yawn of her own before rolling over onto her side, curling tenderly into a ball before falling asleep.

Careful as to not wake Tex, South quietly tucked a black wool blanket over the sleeping blonde, giving the unconscious miner a soft smile. With Tex taken care of, South sat back in her chair, watching Tex in-case anything went wrong. She’d never remember how or when she fell asleep, but she knew that she woke up holding Tex’s hand, acting as her protector.

...

A/N: Finally fucking done, but hey, Part 13 is already being written, so do not fret my weary travelers. I have a feeling that this next chapter is really gonna please ya, too! Please review/reblog/whatever! (PS, how many of you are okay with me adding SouthTex to this party???)

~Supercasey.


	13. Part 13

Nether Worry

Part 13

Pairing: Agent Washington/Tucker, Caboose/Church, Grif/Simmons

Description: In which the Reds and Blues come across a lonely Creative Mode dweller, Sarge makes about ten times more Iron Golems than are strictly necessary, and where Tucker learns that Wash is indeed not a replacement for Church and that may or may not be a bad thing after all.

A/N: The next chapter! Hope you all enjoy, and please review/comment if you can! It’d make my day! <3

...

It was a harsh, windy night in Blood Gulch when Tucker awoke to the sound of crying. Not even sighing with anger or tiredness, Tucker rolled out of bed, landing gracefully on the wooden floor. Quiet as a mouse- though not entirely on purpose- Tucker walked to the side of Junior’s crib, easily scooping out the hybrid child. Junior let out a pathetic excuse for a cry as Tucker rocked him softly, trying to usher the infant back to sleep. Washington wasn’t in his bed, Tucker noticed, as he turned to face the beds they’d set up in the main room. Concerned, Tucker pulled on a button-less robe, wrapping Junior in several small blankets before leaving Blue Base, the winter air greeting him like a shout of pain. Thankfully, Tucker heard no such thing upon leaving the base, and slowly started walking around, in search for Washington.

No monsters dared to enter Blood Gulch, as Andy tended to have a sour enough personality to ward them away. On one hand, Tucker was thankful for the lack of dangerous Mobs, on the other, Andy was an asshole and he could hardly stand him when Tex wasn’t around. Speaking of Tex, Tucker was actually beginning to get worried about her and the gang. There had been no word from them thus far, yet Tucker and Wash had hope that they’d return soon enough. As Tucker crossed the bridge over the trench dividing the canyon, he swore he could hear soft singing and music coming from the darkness below. Curious, Tucker peered over the side of the bridge, Junior held tight to his chest in fear of dropping him.

For a moment, Tucker saw the flash of a torch, but it was gone too quickly to decipher if it was real or imagined. Shrugging it off as the latter, Tucker continued across the bridge, ignoring the way Junior squirmed and made grabby hands towards the ravine. “Calm down, Junior. It’s nothing.” Tucker assured his infant son, rubbing the baby’s back soothingly. “Don’t worry, nothing’s gonna get ya.”

Continuing towards Red Base, Tucker looked up at the sky, grey eyes reflecting moonlight as the full moon shined down upon the lonely canyon. “Fucking sweet, right Junior?” Tucker asked his boy, placing Junior on his shoulders so that he could stare up at the moon alongside his father. “One of these days, I swear to Steve, we’re gonna go there. Won’t that be awesome? I’m gonna show you the whole damn galaxy.“

Junior, who was still an infant and had yet to say even one word, didn’t respond. Instead, he did the same thing he did for the ravine, and squeaked pathetically as he made grabby hands at the big, white square in the night sky. “You’re a weird little fucker, ya know that?” Tucker asked, before heading towards Red Base.

Red Base was lit up like a Christmas tree, covered specifically in Redstone torches. Redstone torches weren’t as bright as regular torches, so Tucker liked them, as they kept him from being nearly blinded while walking Junior around the canyon at night. He entered briskly, glad to be out of the cold, and stopped dead in his tracks as he smelled something brewing in Sarge’s workshop. Careful not to be seen or heard, Tucker poked his head into the workshop, eyes widening as he recognized Washington as the potion brewer. Except he wasn’t making a potion: Wash was trying to warm up a cauldron’s worth of milk. The way Wash was doing it, Tucker could tell that it would be of better quality than slowly-warmed milk via torches. Noticing Tucker in the doorway, Wash faltered, before giving the other man a warm smile.

“Hey, Tucker.” Wash greeted, unable to keep the fatigue out of his voice. “Sorry if I woke you two up, just figured I’d get Junior’s breakfast warmed early.”

“Naw, ya didn’t wake either of us up. Junior kinda… woke up… on his own…” Tucker found it hard to form words, as he became very, very well aware of the fact that Wash was only wearing tight-fitting boxers and an apron, the same one from the maid’s costume.

“That’s good. Seems like Junior’s been getting bigger and bigger.” Wash commented, turning around and dear fucking God, that is NOT what Tucker needed a good look at, not while he was still holding Junior. “He hungry yet? I think the milk is ready.”

“Uh…” Tucker again trailed off, before settling on just handing Junior to Washington, who took the baby tenderly, as if he were just as scared as Tucker was everyday of dropping him.

Tucker continued to watch as Wash took a wooden bowl and, careful not to burn himself, dunked most of the bowl in the warmed milk, pulling it out gently to blow on. After a few seconds, Wash held the rim of the bowl up to Junior’s lips, watching the baby carefully before Junior began to drink down the formula. Sighing with relief, Wash gave Tucker a small, hesitant smile, as if asking if what he was doing was alright. Not wanting Wash to get the wrong idea, Tucker nodded almost too enthusiastically, giving the blond man a thumbs up. Wash nodded back, though he was more courteous, and focused his attention back to Junior. It was moments like these that reminded Tucker briefly of his childhood, however little he remembered of it.

Tucker remembered very little of his days prior to living in Blood Gulch. According to Butch Flowers- or Cappy as he preferred for Tucker to call him- he had found Tucker during a hunting trip, ironically enough near where Tucker later on found Washington. He’d been knocked out, dehydrated, and mumbling things that made no sense whatsoever. However, instead of killing off the young miner or stealing his gear, Flowers had scooped him up onto his back and carried him back to Blood Gulch, where he’d made a home for himself and his companion, Leonard Church. Tucker, upon waking, had known only his name, but his personality made up for his lack of memory. Snapping back to the present, Tucker realized that Wash was looking at him funny, holding a sleeping Junior in his arms.

“Tucker?” Wash inquired, eyes big and concerned. “Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost or something.”

“It’s… it’s nothing.” Tucker assured his teammate, not knowing how else to explain himself to Wash. He supposed Washington would learn of Tucker’s past sooner or later, but for now, he preferred Wash thinking of him as just some arrogant asshole. “I’m fine, Wash. Really.”

Wash, knowing a thing or two about awkwardness and complicated thoughts, politely moved away from the subject, gently handing Junior back to Tucker. “Here. Sorry I held him for so long.”

Tucker shrugged, taking Junior back with a carefulness he’d only recently acquired. “Naw man, it’s fine. It’s not like I got four arms here.”

“True. So… how you feeling lately?” Wash asked, trying to start a conversation of some sort as he leaned on Sarge’s desk. “I’ve noticed that you’ve been up later than normal. Everything alright?”

“I guess so.” Tucker muttered, rocking Junior out of habit. It made him feel more there, like he wasn’t going to fade away or anything like that. “I’m just worried about the guys, ya know? They’re usually pretty damn fine without me, but… ya get the picture.”

“I completely understand. Back before I was allowed to go hunting and mining, ‘Lina said that she’d come home to find me passed out on the couch, waiting for her. Everyone stresses out sometimes, especially when people we care about are away for awhile.” Washington explained, placing a hand on Tucker’s shoulder. “They’ll be back any day now, you’ll see.”

Wash kept his hand there, the warmth seeping into Tucker’s shirt, leaving Tucker’s shoulder warm and comfortable. The two stared at each other for a long time, as if debating on whether or not they should do what they were planning on doing. Well, Tucker was just about done with waiting, and jumped for it. He leaned forward, ever so slightly, and he and Washington’s lips connected. It was brief, and could hardly count as a full-on kiss, but it was real and needed at that moment. Tucker backed off afterwards, breathing hard as he held Junior to himself, the look in his eyes telling Wash that he was unsure if what he’d just done was okay.

Instead of verbally answering Tucker’s unspoken question, Washington leaned forward this time, taking a full step towards the shorter man to start another kiss. This time, it was longer, with both men lingering for a little longer than necessary. As soon as Wash let go, Tucker blinked, letting out a small, content sigh of relief. Wash copied him, prompting Tucker to stare at him again. A beat passed, before the twosome broke into loud, almost thunderous laughter. Junior stirred, awoken by the two’s laughing, but didn’t cry or whine, making small, joyful coos as the two adults lost their dramatic flares. Tucker tried to look into Wash’s eyes again, but had to look away, laughing too hard to keep a straight face.

“Fucking finally.” Tucker muttered under his breath, as he recovered from his laughter, a little worn out from it all. “You are so fucking dense. I’ve been into you, for like, months! About time you finally kissed me, ya big nerd.”

“Shut up, idiot.” Wash laughed back, wiping a few tears from his eyes. He was tired too, but had an air of relief that seemed to linger around him. “It’s not my fault I get nervous! I thought you’d get creeped out, considering I’m older than you.”

“Dude, you’re like, barely five years older than me. It’s not nearly as big of a deal as you think it is.” Tucker promised the blond miner, trying to make a very serious face, failing utterly. “So… I guess we’re boyfriends now. Right? This is how this works?”

“You’ve never dated anyone before?” Upon earning a blush and a head shake, Washington tried to stifle a giggle, unsuccessful in his attempt. “And I thought I was the nerd! But to answer your question, yes. I think we’re officially boyfriends now.”

“About time.” Tucker decided, looking down at Junior to give him a big, gleeful smile. “Ya hear that, Junior? Me and Wash are gonna be dating now!”

Junior seemed unimpressed (We’re pretty sure he thought they were married to begin with), then looked to Wash, making a string of babbles as he tried once again to speak. “Ba- Ah- pa… Papa!”

Both Washington and Tucker simply stared at Junior, Wash looking ready to cry (Okay, yeah, he was totally crying). “Did… did he just call me…?” He sounded so touched, yet so uncertain.

“Yeah, man.” Tucker promised Wash, causing the blond to suddenly surprise Tucker with a strong, unrelenting hug, the older man rubbing Junior’s head lovingly. “Whoa, hey, watch it there, dude! You’re gonna squish him, and me, which is fucking rude since I’m kinda your man-date now!”

“Dada!” Junior added, patting Tucker on the chest to indicate that it was him he was referring to. “Dada, Dada!”

“Oh my God…” Tucker started sobbing, looking just as if not more touched than Washington was. “He called me Dada!”

So busy with their beautiful moment, neither Washington nor Tucker heard the soft, mystical sound of the Nether Portal. However, both became acutely aware that their friends had returned as South whistled with the Blood Gulch Crew, along with York shouting ’Get a room’ in a rather loud voice that made Junior let out a tiny ’Eep’ and disappear in a puff of purple smoke. At first, Tucker and Wash were horrified, but thankfully, Junior reappeared on Maine’s head, idly sucking his thumb. The two sighed with relief, before giving York a harsh glare each. York shuffled awkwardly under their gaze, unprepared for such an intimidating double-glare, before Carolina stepped in front of him, breaking off the glare.

“Good to see you two are well.” Carolina promised, giving her younger brother an excited look, though it was clear that she had worry in her eyes. “Miss us?”

“Like crazy.” Wash promised, almost ready to let go of Tucker and hug Carolina, but stopped, giving his friends an odd look. “Wait… why’re you all back so soon? It hasn’t even been three days!”

“Oh, well, that’s a long story.” Carolina mumbled, before beginning her tale...

...

“I hate you.” Carolina decided, even though she probably didn’t actually hate him. Dislike him maybe, but not hate him. “You’re completely ridiculous.”

“But you look so precious!” Donut cooed, referring to the teal bows he’d tied into Carolina’s fiery hair while she’d been asleep. “Don’t you like them? They even match your armor!”

“I will throw you into the lava lake.” Carolina announced, looking ready to run after Donut. She and him had been trapped on a tiny-ass island in the middle of the Nether’s lava lake for over a day, and already she was feeling her humanity leave her. “You know, when we entered the Nether, I was expecting something a little more… entertaining.”

“I think this is fun!” Donut replied, throwing yet another snowball into the lava lake, watching it melt before it could even impact with it. He’d packed plenty of snowballs beforehand, for whatever reason. “I mean, we’re in the Nether of all places! Isn’t this exciting?”

Before Carolina could reply, she heard a loud, distant scream from overhead. She stared up, spotting a bridge from the Nether Castle above. She would’ve climbed up to it the day before, but she didn’t have nearly enough netherrack or materials to reach the cut-off bridge. Carolina squinted her eyes, peering up at the edge of the bridge. Something- or someone- was up there, decked in white with something big, orange, and glowing chasing after them. Suddenly, the white mass lost it’s balance, revealing itself to be none other than Maine as the tall miner fell from the bridge, a Blaze following after him. Maine landed with a shout, by some miracle not dying from the fall damage, while the Blaze gently hovered to the ground beside him.

“Oh my God!” Carolina shouted, jumping up as she ran over to inspect Maine’s wounds. “Are you alright? What happened up there?”

Maine, as usual, didn’t reply, too busy glaring at the Blaze as he wiped himself off, bits of netherrack coming off his armor as he dusted it off. “My apologizes.” The Blaze’s voice was smooth yet terrifying, making Carolina feel uncomfortable in front of the Mob. “Allow me to introduce myself: I am Sigma. This miner is my newest companion.”

“Your newest companion?” Carolina asked, confused. “Maine, where’d you find this… Sigma character?” She turned her attention back to Maine, who still looked upset at the Blaze.

Maine huffed, shrugging as he looked away, rolling his eyes at Sigma. “It seems my new friend is upset with me. Please forgive him, for this behavior is just how he is.” Sigma explained, as if he’d known Maine for decades.

Donut’s eyes were wide as he looked the Blaze over, amazed by the newly discovered breed of monster. “Wow! What are you? You’re amazing looking!”

Sigma seemed to enjoy this, and turned to Donut, going off on an explanation of sorts. In the meantime, Carolina had Maine step aside with her as she examined his wounds more closely. “Are you sure you’re okay?” She repeated, and once he’d snorted and nodded, she softened, glad to hear that he was still in one piece. “That’s good. Can’t lose you, buddy.”

From overhead, another, much bigger white mass appeared, making a huge, square shadow cover the tiny island. Sigma, Donut, Carolina, and Maine all looked up, eyes widening at the sight. Overhead, riding on a Ghast, was Caboose, North, South, Tex, Church, Simmons, York, Doc, Grif, and Connie. They waved excitedly, Doc throwing down a rope. One by one, Donut, Maine, and Carolina used the rope to climb up onto the Ghast, with Sigma hovering up beside them. Once situated on the Ghast, everyone began talking excitedly at once. Carolina looked to South, who gave the red-head a soft shrug, her grin big and unaltered by the dramatic entrance she and the others had made. Behind her, North was trying not to vomit, the older twin unused to air-travel.

“Uh… you wanna explain what the Hell is going on?” Carolina asked, a confused smile on her face as she kept looking around, amazed by the situation.

South shrugged again, smiling at Carolina. “It’s a long story, but fuck it, we got time! Tex and I got jumped by Caboose’s Ghast here, and she got hurt, so we found Simmons and Church who helped save her burned ass from dying. After that, Caboose got lonely so we went and tracked down my shitty brother. Turns out he was almost married off to a Zombie-Pigmen- could’ve had a family, house with a white fence, tamed wolf in the backyard, all that jazz. Well, we kidnapped him and then we found Connie, Grif, York, and Doc on the way here!” She rattled off, looking undisturbed by her brother’s own experiences in the Nether.

“How’d you even find us?” Carolina asked, still a bit confused, but more of it was starting to make sense… kinda.

“You’re in the middle of the entire Nether. It wasn’t that fucking hard.” Church announced, leaning back against Caboose’s back as the taller miner tried to make Freckles stay still. “Caboose, the fuck is going on? Why’s your pet shaking so damn bad?”

“I… do not know.” Caboose admitted, unable to control Freckles as the Ghast shivered and shook. “Freckles! What is wrong?”

All too suddenly, Sarge, Wyoming, and Lopez came jumping over the bridge Maine had fallen from not too long ago, screaming like animals the whole way down. They landed dead square on Freckles, causing the Ghast to let out a cry of pain as it lost control of itself. Everyone on-board screamed in terror as Freckles tilted over, dropping all of the unfortunate miners into the lava. They all died quickly, except for Caboose, who had grabbed onto Freckles’ legs just in time. And that’s where Carolina’s story finally ended…

“So what happened to Caboose!?” Tucker asked excitedly, eyes wide as Carolina retold the story of their adventures. “Is he still there? Where is he!?”

“Calm down, lad.” Wyoming ordered, nursing what was possibly a broken left arm as he leaned on Sarge for support. “I’m sure your little friend is just fine.”

“But where-” Washington was cut off as the Portal outside revved up. He and the others immediately took off outside, eyes wide as they stared at Caboose, who had Freckles by a leather lead. “-Caboose!” He shouted, running over to hug the blue miner. “What happened to you? Are you hurt?”

“I am okay.” Caboose promised, before pulling out a glass bottle from his inventory. “But… you might want this.”

Back in the Nether, Freckles soon calmed down, stilling so that Caboose could reclaim his balance on the Mob. The blue miner looked unfazed by all of his friends dying so horribly, and quickly took back the ropes that were connected to the Ghast, sighing with relief as he adjusted himself on the Mob.

“That was scary.” Caboose mused, directing Freckles towards a purple glow emitting from the top of a floating island. “Let us go home, Freckles.”

“Wait!” A voice called, and Caboose stopped, looking up at the bridge Sarge, Wyoming, and Lopez had fallen from earlier. There, standing at the edge, was a woman wearing a baby blue hijab with dark brown skin. “Are you… are you from the Overworld?” When Caboose nodded hesitantly, the woman’s face lit up. “Then can you do me a favor?”

Caboose flew up to where the woman was, a bright smile on his face as he faced her while still riding on Freckles. “As long as it is not a hard favor, I will try to help you!”

The woman grinned then, something Caboose had a feeling that she didn’t do very often. “Here-” She pulled out a glass bottle with a note inside, handing it to Caboose. “-Please take this to someone who can help us. We need a hero, preferably one who can help us win a war.”

Caboose took the bottle, tucking it into his own bag. “I will try to find someone who can help you!” He promised, shaking the woman’s outstretched hand. “My name is Caboose by the way. What is your’s?”

The woman chuckled, shaking her head. "You can call me Vanessa. Vanessa Kimball. I hope I’ll live long enough to see you again, Caboose. Good luck out there!” With that, she took off, back into the Nether Castle to go Steve knows where.

"She was very nice, Freckles.” Caboose decided, leading Freckles towards the Nether Portal. “I hope I get to see her again.” In an instant, they disappeared, a purple mist left behind in the Nether.

...

“What does it say then?” Connie asked excitedly as Washington opened the bottle after Caboose’s explanation. “Read it outloud so everyone can hear.”

“Dearest Overworlders, my name is Vanessa Kimball-” Wash began, looking uncertain as all eyes were on him. “-If you are reading this note, it means that you have at least once visited the Nether. We need your help. There is a nation of miners from long ago who live here, but civil war has broken out. I am a Rebel. We are losing. We need allies: the Feds have a new merc and our’s can’t keep up with him 24/7. We can hold them back for a few more months, but we need your help. Please, if you can, send supplies or join us in our war against the Feds… the note ends there.” He explained, handing the note off to Carolina for her to read to herself. “What do you think, boss?”

“I think…” Carolina paused, both for effect and to consider her plan. “… I think we’ll need to visit the Nether again someday.”

...

To Be Continued…

A/N: Aaaaand, here’s that update! That last bit with Caboose and the note is going to be VERY important for this story’s hopeful sequel (Something I’ll get started on writing on the side this summer), but at least I’ve updated! Please R&R, it’d make me SO happy!

~Supercasey.


	14. Part 14

Nether Worry

Part 14

Pairing: Agent Washington/Tucker, Caboose/Church, Grif/Simmons

Description: In which the Reds and Blues come across a lonely Creative Mode dweller, Sarge makes about ten times more Iron Golems than are strictly necessary, and where Tucker learns that Wash is indeed not a replacement for Church and that may or may not be a bad thing after all.

A/N: A big time skip, but I felt it was necessary. Also, it’s supposed to be early-spring now in the fic, just in-case anyone becomes confused. Also, looking back I just realized that Sister kinda hasn’t had any appearances since Part 8 with little to no explanation… yeah, my bad. Blame my shit writing. So, there’s a BIT of an explanation in here, but you can expect that she’ll pop up again later on. Please R&R, and I’m sorry for the long Author’s Note!

...

It had been three months since Washington and Tucker had gotten together, along with the rest of the crew finishing up their exploration of the Nether. They stilled visited it every once in awhile- searching mainly for the mysterious stranger- but they had yet to make contact with the Nether-Wanderer, to the point that they wondered if Caboose had imagined it all up, yet it wouldn’t explain the note. In the meantime, all of the Freelancers save for Washington had lost a life during their first trip to the Nether- now making it so that Wash, South, North, and Tex were on their last ones- so now the BGC had been trying to keep the listed people out of harm’s way at all costs. Wash rolled with it, as he’d been guarded like a lion since his first life had been lost, and North quickly followed his example and stayed out of trouble. As for South and Tex… well, they’re weren’t exactly excited to be ‘sheltered’ by their teammates.

“It’s scavenging, Tucker. Not a monster hunt.” Tex reminded Tucker for maybe the millionth time as she glared at the teal dressed miner, arms crossed stubbornly over her chest. “You can’t make me stay in here forever. I’m no housewife.”

“Yeah, cut us some goddamn slack, shithead!” South ordered harshly, even more upset about all the sheltering than Tex, as she’d already been sheltered far too many times while living only with her twin brother. “We’ve been cooped up in this shitty canyon for weeks!”

“It’s only been four days since you were out last.” North corrected, washing dishes in Blue Team’s sink alongside Simmons, who had volunteered to help tidy up the base earlier in the day. "Relax, sis. You could use the break.”

“What’s that supposed to mean, dick-munch!?” South asked angrily, and North wisely looked away, not wanting to start a fight his sister would surely finish. “Don’t forget, I was the best fighter in Creative long before Carolina! I’m no doormat.”

“No one said you were.” Simmons pointed out, quietly, not wanting to really get involved, but now it was too late because South was giving him that look. He gulped, squirming under her electric blue glare. “I’ll… I’ll shut up.”

“You dudes only got one life left.” Tucker reminded the ferocious duo before him, oddly enough brave as he guarded the front door. “We just don’t want you guys getting your asses killed. Sorry, dudes. It’s our only option until Sarge perfects that Creative potion.”

"He’s getting closer, he’s just missing some ingredients.” Simmons explained, sounding proud of his team leader. “He’s not sure what they are yet, but Wyoming promised to help him work on it tonight after dinner.”

“He needs supplies, huh?” Tex’s grin couldn’t be any more wicked, and a glimmer in her eyes made Simmons regret even speaking. “Come on, South! Let’s go see if we can’t help Sarge with those potion ingredients!”

“Count me in!” South replied, glad for the excuse to get out of the drama-filled, boring canyon she now called home. “Later, Blueturds!”

“I’m a Red!” Simmons shouted after her, but South ignored him, favoring to join Tex in slamming Tucker out of the way and bolting out of Blue Base, across the ravine’s bridge, and into the forest surrounding the canyon.

Tucker, in the meantime, groaned in irritation as he dusted himself off, none-too-pleased with being manhandled by both Texas and South. “You okay?” North asked, drying off his hands before walking over to Tucker, helping him to his feet. “Sorry about that, she’s just tired of being here. I’m sure you can understand.”

Tucker shrugged, seemingly unaffected by South and Tex’s assault. “Naw, dude, I fucking get it. Shits actually quiet around here and people’re getting bored as fuck. Can’t really blame 'em, now can I?”

North nodded in agreement, still looking concerned for the younger miner. “Well, still, don’t let it get to you. There’s no need to start a civil war here, too. Speaking of which, any updates from Carolina on the Nether situation?”

“Nope.” Tucker admitted, pulling on a coat from under the table. He had no idea whose it was (It’s was Caboose’s), but it was the closest one to him so he hardly minded borrowing it for awhile. “But I can check-in with her if you need me to.”

“That’d be great actually.” North replied, moving to go and help Simmons with the dishes again. “You be careful out there, okay? Just 'cus Andy’s around doesn’t mean we’re impervious to monsters or anything like that.”

“I’ll be fine, Dad.” Tucker sassed back, the word 'Dad’ coming out with added malice. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’ve got a kickass sword, remember?” Just in-case, Tucker unsheathed said Diamond Sword, swinging to further explain his point. “See? I’ll be fine, North.”

“If you say so.” And with that, North let the matter drop. He had a habit of doing that: of worrying over everyone in the canyon, but Tucker could handle himself just fine. He had a feeling it would be awhile though before North was convinced of that.

Tucker afterwards left Blue Base, arms wrapped around himself to keep himself warm as a cold breeze hit him square in the face. Outside, the snow had just begun melting, with warmer months on the way. On Blue Base’s side of the ravine was the Freelancer HQ as Carolina called it so fondly: it was the Freelancer’s home. Although it wasn’t said outloud, the other Freelancers made it pretty clear that Washington was welcome to rejoin his teammates and live with them in their base. Hell, there was even a whole bed in-between Maine’s and Connie’s that was reserved for him. Still, Wash had yet to make the integration back into their team, for obvious reasons of course, mainly being that he and Tucker were now an active item and Junior was still dependent on the both of them.

Thinking now of Junior, Tucker’s face lit up with excitement and pride. His little Ender-Human hybrid son had been growing up fast. Not fast enough to reach his height, not yet, but the kid could walk now and reached Tucker’s hip in height when he stood. Doc had determined that Junior’s growth spurt was far from over, and predicted that by the end of spring, Junior would outgrow his own father in height. Other than his height, Junior was growing in other ways, too! While he HAD learned 'Papa’ and 'Dada’, he seemed to speak in an entirely different Endermen-like language most of the time. Tucker had picked up on it rather quickly, but he still had no idea where he’d learned it from. Doc was clueless as well, making Tucker even more worried about the whole thing. Thankfully, he could at least understand him. For the most part.

As the aquamarine-dressed miner walked across the bridge, he stopped, yet again hearing someone singing from inside the ravine. The insanity that seemed to be in everyone in the canyon be damned, Tucker was certain that someone- not a something, a someone- was singing down below. As usual, Tucker ran to the edge of the bridge, holding onto the railing as he peered over, squinting as he tried to catch a glimpse of whatever the Hell was down there. But, as usual and following the ritual, the singing stopped abruptly and Tucker was left with nothing. The short miner huffed, shaking his head at himself for acting so dumb. Of course there was nothing down there! If there was, someone else would’ve heard it by now! Still… Tucker couldn’t help searching those shadows for a clue.

And what he found were two. Big. Brown. Eyes.

They stared up at Tucker, the miner only able to stand there, mouth slightly agape as he watched the shadow’s eyes blink up at him. Then he saw it- that white-toothed grin. The creature’s eyes were already quite intimidating, but that grin… Tucker opened his mouth to scream for help, before the shadow’s mouth abruptly closed. It disappeared, for a moment, before something glittering was being thrown from that direction up at Tucker. Whatever creature it was, it had damn good aim, because the glass bottle not only was able to be caught by Tucker, but it didn’t break upon impact. Tucker inspected the bottle once he had it, noticing a coiled up note inside, and made to look over the edge and ask what it was, but the mysterious Mob was long gone, leaving no hint behind of it’s existence, save for the bottle.

Alone again (And rather disturbed) Tucker examined the bottle in his hands. Surprisingly, a neat little ribbon was tied around the bottle’s base, it being the same color as Tucker’s armor. It couldn’t be a coincidence. For a moment, Tucker considered opening up the bottle, reading the note, and keeping it to himself. However, he remembered something Washington had told him during the first month they’d gotten together- “I know it’ll be hard, but we should start telling each other about more stuff going on with us. It might help make this work better.”- and it made Tucker reconsider. Sighing, he tucked the bottle into his satchel, gave the ravine once last glance, and then made for the Freelancer HQ.

...

Washington awoke that afternoon without screaming, surprisingly enough. He’d been sleeping uneasily these last few days, which he considered odd, mainly because he and Tucker usually shared a bed, which miraculously enough warded off his nightmares. Not these ones though. At first, they’d been like his usual ones- a blonde woman who had no mouth or distinct features yet he knew was his mother walked beside him through a plains biome, suddenly, she disappeared, suddenly with gunmetal blue eyes and tears in them as she screamed for him- but, they’d taken a turn for the worst. It seemed like ever since Wash and Tucker had gotten together, he’d been having these truly awful nightmares whenever he closed his eyes. They were so bad, Wash had decided to spend the weekend sleeping in the Freelancer HQ.

He knew already that it bothered Tucker: they were only three months into their relationship and suddenly Washington was backing off like Tucker had the plague. In reality, Wash wanted nothing more than to hold Tucker close after his night terrors and know he was okay, but he was scared that he’d start freaking Tucker out if he acted like that. Maybe this weekend would make the nightmares go away? Wash sure hoped so. As much as he liked kicking it with his old crew, he couldn’t help but long for Tucker’s company, even when he was having a lot of fun with the others. Sitting up in bed, Wash grabbed his clock from out of his chest, checking the time of day. It looked like the sun had been up for awhile, but not for too long. He still had plenty of time to pitch in and help around the canyon.

The blond crawled out of bed and slipped out of his pajamas, throwing on his under clothes before clamping on his leather armor. Once he checked himself in the mirror, Wash started heading downstairs, only to stop dead in his tracks as he noticed his sister Carolina sitting alone in the den. He crouched down, gunmetal blue eyes peering between the bars of the handrail as he spied on the red-head. Carolina wasn’t doing much of anything, sitting patiently on the couch as she sharpened her favorite iron sword; a hand-me-down from mom before she died. Noticing him, Carolina turned slightly, holding eye-contact with her younger brother for a good two minutes before beckoning him to come sit with her.

"Is… something wrong, sis?” Washington inquired as he hesitantly approached the couch, taking a seat beside Carolina on the purple wool-covered couch. “What ya doing here? I thought you and York were gonna be hunting today.”

“We were, but I cancelled. We need to talk, David.” It was rare that Carolina called him David, so she got Wash’s attention right away. “Can I ask you something?” Once Wash nodded, she swallowed, as if afraid to voice her question. “Do you… do you really wanna stay here?”

“Wait, what?” Wash asked, confusion written on his face. “Why are you asking me this, 'Lina? Is something going on? Are we doing something wrong?”

Carolina set her sword down, standing up to stand before her younger brother, almost half a head shorter than her younger sibling, yet she towered over the still seated man. “I’m asking because we want to go home, David. Some of us want to go back to Creative Mode. We came here for you, but it looks like you’ve already found a new team to call your family. Can’t say I blame ya: they’re good people. But… you’re still my baby brother. And at the end of the day, I want you to come home with us. It would mean leaving this life behind… but it’s your choice, Wash. You don’t have to decide right now, but I’m putting it out there before someone else fucks it up. We’re leaving in a month.” With that, she left the base, leaving Washington by himself.

Before the younger sibling could even begin to dwell on his sister’s one-sided conversation with him, in came Tucker through the front door. Seeing the aquamarine miner made Wash’s stomach do flipflops, but he put on a smile anyways, not wanting to worry his boyfriend. “Hey, Tucker. What’s up?” He asked, trying to sound relaxed.

Tucker, on his part, gave Wash an odd look, but made no comment about the blond’s awkward response. “I came to show you this bottle I found. Something from inside the ravine threw it at me.” He explained, pulling out the bottle and handing it to Wash. “I thought you might wanna read it with me, man.”

All thoughts of Carolina’s offer washed away as Washington took ahold of the glass bottle, pulling out the note from inside to look over. He had Tucker sit down beside him on the couch before he cleared his throat, beginning to read the letter aloud. “Greets from the ravine, fellow miners! I’m pleased to finally re-meet you all! Now that it seems that some old friends are back in the canyon, it’s about time we meet again! Feel free to pop by into the ravine and give me a shout, and I’ll be sure to keep my Mob friends at bay. PS, Tucker… bring your sword. I have some friends who’d like to see you.” It ended there. Wash, afterwards, shot Tucker an absolutely astonished look, not knowing how to react to the rather odd letter.

"Well… that was fucking weird.” Tucker decided, looking puzzled by the odd note. “The fuck should we do? I mean, ’Re-meet’? What the fuck does that mean? And why does it want me to bring my sword? Also, how the fuck does it know my name!?”

“Tucker, calm down.” Washington urged his lover, grabbing ahold of the darker man’s hands in his own, squeezing them slightly to comfort him. “We’ll figure it out, okay? This sounds like some serious stuff though: we should tell the others.”

"But they JUST got done with the Nether, like, three months ago!” Tucker argued, not sounding pleased at the idea of them all going into the ravine. “We can’t risk you, North, South, or Tex going down there!”

“Then we’ll stay behind.” Wash offered, as hard as it was to. Personally, he was getting pretty damn stir-crazy in the canyon, but he’d be damned if he died now, while Junior was still young and he was still making it work with Tucker. “Me, North, South, and Tex can stay here and watch Junior while you lead a team into the ravine.”

“Whoa whoa whoa- did you just say LEAD!? Okay, no, not happening.” Tucker made to stand up and leave the HQ, but Wash still held onto his hands. Tucker turned, giving Wash a baffled and worried look, but the blond only smiled reassuringly back at him. “… Holy shit, you’re serious, aren’t you?”

Wash nodded. “I am. You’re a great fighter, Tucker. You’ve improved a lot since we first met, believe it or not, and I think you can easily lead them down there. Besides, Carolina’ll help you if you need some guidance.”

Tucker still seemed uncertain, but soon sighed in defeat, giving Wash an uncertain smile. “Yeah… okay, sure, I’ll give it a shot.” He agreed, giving his lover a quick peck on the cheek. “You think you can guard the house 'til I’m home, babe?”

Wash laughed, smiling broadly back at Tucker. “It’ll be hard, but I’m sure it’ll be okay. At least Tex and the twins can help if I start screwing up, right?”

“Right.” Tucker agreed, giving Wash just one, last kiss, before dashing outside to tell the others the big news.

...

“Like SHIT I’m staying behind!”

Of fucking course she’d say that. Church groaned internally, mentally berating Wash and Tucker for dropping the news on him to tell the teams (“It’s because you’re a people person, Church. Wh- NO! We’re not trying to avoid a fight with the girls! What would make you say that, man?”). Once this was over with, Church had a list of loud, choice words for Tucker and Wash, but for now, all he could do was pray that South and Tex wouldn’t murder him for trying to keep them off the battlefield. Actually, Church didn’t have much of a problem with them going down into the ravine: Tex can handle herself just fine and South’s almost always with her anyways, so she’d probably be fine also. The only one Church even slightly doubted was North.

“Look, Tex, this wasn’t my fucking idea, 'kay?” Church made sure to clarify, trying to put the blame on anyone but himself. “It’s Tucker and Wash’s stupid idea! Which, by the way, isn’t THAT outrageous. I mean, you have one shitty life left, and, well, being a Zombie ain’t any fun, sister.”

"Where IS Sister anyhow?” Doc suddenly asked, sitting on the table of Red Base beside Donut, watching the argument from a safe distance. “Has anyone seen her since we got here?”

That caused a long, cold beat of silence. “… Oh my God, the yellow kid vanished…” North whispered, eyes wide in terror. “Where the did she even GO!?”

“Uh…” Church trailed off, swallowing uneasily. “… When was the last time anyone saw her?”

“Wait, was she the one who stared at my chest and called me hot?” Tex asked, looking perplexed. “Because if that’s her, she took off, like, three and a half months ago.”

“Where did she go though!?” Donut screeched, terrified at the idea of Grif’s little sister being snatched by Mobs when no one was looking. “She could be anywhere! She could be in the desert, or in Creative Mode, or-”

“-Just calm down, Donut.” North urged, regaining his composure. “I’m sure she’s not far. If we send out a search party-”

“-What good will that do?” South roared, glaring at North hatefully. “You heard Tex! She’s been gone for MONTHS! Besides, what if she doesn’t WANT to be fucking found? Sometimes you just gotta… go away for awhile.” Her voice went low, and full of a certain understanding that was impossible to miss. “I mean, no one noticed she was gone until now, so… who cares if she wants to disappear for a little while?”

“But what if she got taken, South!” North continued to argue, looking angrier and angrier as his sister spoke. “We can’t just assume Sister ran off on her own! A Mob probably got her!”

All was quiet, before South spoke up, voice terrifyingly quiet. “… I watched her go.” She admitted, after a little bit. “She said she was looking for some asshole named 'Cockbite’ or something… then she was gone. She told me if anybody missed her to just play it off as nothing.”

Again, it became quiet, before Church inhaled and exhaled rather loudly, shaking his head pitifully. ”… So what’s it gonna be?“ He finally asked, getting back onto the topic of the ravine. "You gonna stay or go? In the end, it’s your death-wish.”

South and Tex exchanged a look, since they were the only ones arguing about this situation. North pointedly looked away, not wanting to interfere, and eventually, Tex let out a long, labored sigh of frustration. ”… Yeah, okay. We’ll stay.“ She promised, shooting South one last, questioning glance. Once the other blonde nodded, she seemed much more sure of herself. "You bring us back some treasure though, 'kay?”

“Will do.” Church promised, walking out the front door. North followed him, giving South an encouraging pat on the shoulder on the way out.

Donut blinked, giving Tex a wide smile. “Wow, Tex. That’s really responsible of you! I thought for sure you and South would go!” He exclaimed, impressed by the girls.

“Oh no, I’m not about to be stopped THAT easy!” Tex declared, giving Donut a truly terrifying grin. It reminded the man of a shark. “Come on, South. We gotta pack up now if we’re gonna follow 'em into the ravine!”

“Right behind ya!” South assured, following after her friend loyally.

Doc and Donut exchanged a look, before they sighed in unison. “Should we stop them?” Doc questioned, a little hesitant.

“Naw.” Donut muttered, shaking his head. “I don’t thick we could stop them, even if we tried.”

...

A/N: This chapter came sooner than they usually do, so I guess that’s good? I dunno, I dunno, I already have the final chapter for the whole fic written, but I need to work up to it and I’m worried I’m not doing well with the content until then? I dunno, let me know in the comments/reviews if ya can, it’d take a load off my mind or at least help me find what I’m doing wrong. Please R&R!

~Supercasey.


	15. Part 15

Nether Worry

Part 15

Pairing: Agent Washington/Tucker, Caboose/Church, Grif/Simmons

Description: In which the Reds and Blues come across a lonely Creative Mode dweller, Sarge makes about ten times more Iron Golems than are strictly necessary, and where Tucker learns that Wash is indeed not a replacement for Church and that may or may not be a bad thing after all.

A/N: So I'm thinking this fic'll be done by Chapter 20? Not sure yet: if it takes longer or shorter than that, I don't think I'll mind TOO MUCH? We'll see what happens.

...

"You're saying... that our ravine- a ravine we've lived near for, like, two years at least- is haunted? By spirits?" Church asked, sounding out his words accordingly.

"Damned blue poltergeists!" Sarge bellowed, snatching the blue ribbon off of the bottle Tucker had, trying to crush the pretty ribbon in his hand. "We cannot let this stand!"

"You really think there's something down there?" North asked, coming to stand at the edge of the ravine with Connie and Maine.

"Besides the Underground Fortress? There's an abandoned mineshaft too, I think." Connie remembered, saying it more to herself than to North.

Before York could crack a joke about the word 'shaft' being in mineshaft, Tex jumped to attention, getting right up in Connie's personal space. "DID YOU JUST SAY UNDERGROUND FORTRESS!?" She shouted, looking both shocked and furious.

"Um... yes?" Connie offered, not knowing how else to respond to the angry blonde presented to her. "I mean, it's been there for awhile... thought everybody knew about it by now."

"THE FORTRESS WAS UNDER US THAT ENTIRE TIME!?" Church boomed, his voice screeching to one of the highest octaves anyone had ever heard. "I DIED LOOKING FOR A FORTRESS THAT WAS LITERALLY THIRTY FEET AWAY FROM THE BASE!?"

"So those were not crickets chirping in the night..." Caboose mumbled to himself, looking concerned with this news. "Just screaming... I thought crickets screamed..."

South gave Caboose an absolutely horrified look. "What kind of fucking crickets have you SEEN, man!?" She asked, baffled.

Before Caboose could explain himself, Washington finally spoke up. "Can everyone just quiet down for a few minutes?" He asked rather politely, making everyone actually stop without any sort of violence starting. "Wow, that actually worked... anyhow, as you've all heard, there is obviously someone down in the ravine. Whether they are injured or not is still up for debate, but either way, we should still send a party down there to investigate. We're not going to form parties of two- according to Doc that didn't work in the Nether- so we'll all just go down together. As anyone can imagine, I, South, North, and Tex will stay here, while everyone else goes. Anyone is free to stay behind, but the more going the better. We can handle the canyon on our own just fine."

This seemed to settle surprisingly well with the Reds, Blues, and Freelancers. "Good to see that everyone's being cooperative. Now, we'll draw straws to see who will go down fir-"

"-LATER, COCKBITES!" South screamed, shoving a crudely drawn picture of a straw into Washington's face, afterwards jumping straight down into the ravine, Tex jumping in after her with a scream of victory and excitement.

"SOUTH!" North ran to the edge of the ravine, staring down after his twin sister. "Oh my God, my sisters gonna die!" He flashed York a worried look, giving him a single nod. "Tell Theta that I love hiiiiiiiiiiiiiim!" He screamed as he dove into the ravine after his twin.

"Well there goes your cooperation, Wash." Connie muttered, rolling her eyes at the twins and Tex. "Have fun watching the canyon while we're gone." Connie then threw down a rope, connecting it to the ravine wall as she safely followed after the other miners.

"... I CUT THESE STRAWS FOR FORTY MINUTES LAST NIGHT, YOU SHITHEADS!" Wash screeched, running to the edge of the ravine to throw the straws over the edge, glaring at the ones who'd already gone in. "I fucking hate everyone in this goddamn canyon."

Ignoring Washington's anger, everyone but Tucker and Junior entered the ravine, with Tucker lingering on the edge beside Wash. "Keep the bed warm for me, 'kay?" Tucker requested, giving Wash a peck on the lips.

Wash chuckled, momentarily forgetting his earlier rage. "Will do, Mister Chosen One." He promised, pulling Tucker into a longer, more intense kiss before pulling away, sharing a long look of worry and excitement with Tucker...

... Until Junior ruined it.

The tiny fucker had been getting faster, and due to his silence, he was rarely heard before someone was tackle-hugged. Unfortunately, he chose a terrible time to tackle Wash from behind. "OH SHIT!" Wash shouted, losing his balance as he tipped forward, sending himself, Tucker, and Junior into the ravine.

Tucker and Wash screamed in terror and horror as they rode the slope down, clutching onto each other for dear life. "Junior, come to Daddy!" Tucker urged, holding out one arm to Junior, who was sliding down a little ahead of them. "We'll protect you, lil' man!"

Junior giggled at this, amused apparently by the utter terror in his parent's eyes, and waved goodbye as he teleported away. "THAT CHEATING LIL' SHIT!" Tucker yelled, before blacking out upon impact to the ground.

...

"Screeeee..."

"Scree scree scree."

Wash groaned, squinting as he tried to sit up, but he was too tired, and couldn't hardly move as he stared upwards, the opening of the ravine far off and distant. It was just before dusk above ground, and the sunset's orange hues could be seen on the edge of the ravine. Washington again moaned in exhaustion and pain, soon seeing a tall, black being standing just out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head sideways, watching as a grown, tall Endermen scooped Tucker off of Wash's chest, holding him bridal style. Behind the first Endermen was another, holding a docile Junior, who was sucking his thumb with one hand and using his other hand to hold onto the large Endermen's shoulder, eyes big and curious as he watched his parents from afar.

"H-Hey..." Wash wheezed out, trying to reach a hand out to Tucker and the Endermen, his arm shaking violently with the energy needed to keep it in the air. "D-Don't take him... Tucker, w-wake up... you can't take him..." His arm gave out, falling numbly to the ground as his vision speckled with black dots of distortion.

The Endermen stared down at Washington, watching the blond miner curiously. "Not chosen." It gritted out, struggling to form English on it's foreign tongue. It held Tucker out to Wash, if only to indicate what it meant by it's words. "Chosen One." It patted Tucker's back, carrying the unconscious miner away, following the Endermen carrying Junior.

A few seconds passed, with Wash teetering on his consciousness, when a familiar voice tisked sadly at his predicament. "Oh, this won't do at all, will it, David?" The voice asked, a face staring down at Wash from above, but the lighting made it impossible to make out his face. The person though, Wash noted, had two, thick, long braids on either side of his head. "That's too bad that they took Lavernius... but don't you worry, buddy 'ole pal! I'll take care of you."

Wash soon passed out, just as the stranger tossed him into a fireman carry, the younger miner falling into a fitful, but much needed sleep.

...

"Where in God's name are we?" Tex asked, walking down the abandoned mineshaft with Connie and South right on her tail. Tex carried a torch in one hand, and her favorite iron sword in the other. "I thought that you said that the damn Fortress was down here, CT!"

"It is. We just need to navigate a bit." Connie explained, looking a bit unhappy that she wasn't leading the group of three, seeing as she knew which way they needed to go to begin with, but she made no outward comment on the situation. "Turn left at the next hallway."

"Will you two tit-shits be quiet already! You'll get us all killed if you make too much noise!" South snapped, trying to keep her voice down. Unlike most of the others, she had once specialized in hunter vs hunter type games back home, so she knew better than to make a commotion.

"Sorry." Tex whispered, voice low and softer than any of the girls had ever heard. "Hey, what's that up ahead?" She held out the hand holding the torch more, eyes squinting as she tried to figure out what exactly the short shadow ahead was. "I'll be damned... that you, 'Lina?"

"Tex?" The shadow asked, entering the torch light to reveal herself as Carolina, hands going up to try and lessen the glare of light off of her eyes, that had, a few seconds prior, been more adjusted to the natural tunnel lighting. "Is that you? And here I thought I was the only one lost in this Notch forsaken mineshaft!"

"Oh, thank God it's you and not another Cave Spider..." Connie muttered, a sly smile on her face as she recognized the red-head. "Have you seen the others? After we all got in, everyone just took off. Hell, we haven't even seen Tucker, and he's supposed to be in charge of this mission!"

"I DID kinda fucking rush in like my ass was on fire..." South admitted quietly, blushing as she looked away from Carolina and Tex. "Guess I'm to blame for that shit... but yeah, we haven't seen butt-fuck anyone since we jumped into the ravine. Not even North!"

"Well, sorry to rain on your parade, but I've been alone since York went after North. I haven't seen anyone in awhile." Carolina explained, smiling at the group of girls. "To be honest, I'm glad you guys found me when you did. I was sure I was fucked when I heard you coming down the hallway. Any of you have a Porkchop or anything?"

"Yeah, I've got some meat left over-" Tex muttered, handing over one of her own rations of Steak. "-Eat it fast, kid. We've got some ground to make before anything else tries to fuck us in the ass." She waited until Carolina had started eating to get them moving again, making sure to take Connie's directions from before and turn left as instructed. "At least we're not alone, right?"

"Yeah. At least us ladies'll be sticking together!" South declared, though her voice was terrifyingly low, not to seem threatening, but to keep from attracting any Mobs' attention. "Right, girls?" She swung an arm around Connie's shoulders, doing the same with her other arm around Carolina.

Connie chuckled, rolling her eyes. "Whatever you say, South." She agreed quietly, winking at Carolina as the two continued on with South and Tex, closer and closer towards the Fortress.

...

"It's game over, man! Game over!" York exaggerated, pretending to faint into North's arms, trying to make North and Maine laugh. "North, tell my dogs... I love them... and tell the Director to suck it..."

Maine growled something that sounded threatening under his breath, while North chuckled in a fatherly manner, rolling his eyes at York's behavior. "You're such a child." He decided, letting York fall to the ground as he released the brunet.

"Buzzkill." York muttered after landing heavily on his back, the back of his chest armor now covered in dirt and gravel. "At least I'm not the one who got us lost as shit!"

"I didn't get us lost!" North argued, defending himself. "You were the one who came charging down the hallway like Herobrine was after you! We had to fight off a wave of Cave-Spiders, and then we got all turned around. This is your fault!"

Maine grunted his own opinion, but none of the other miners understood him and therefore pointedly ignored him. "Hey, that spider thing wasn't my fault! And you were just as scared as me," York shivered, recalling the awful memories. "Dude, I'm getting chills just thinking about 'em... all those creepy legs and poisonous fangs..."

North shivered, obviously uncomfortable with spiders as well. "Shut up, man," He almost begged, jumping as he heard a creaking sound nearby. "AH! What was that!?"

York looked behind the group, everyone else copying him as he did so. "S-Shut up, dude! You're freaking me out here!"

Maine, meanwhile, grinned evilly as he looked ahead, stopping mid-stride at a fork in the hallway system. "OW!" York gasped, he and North crashing into Maine from behind as the giant abruptly stopped. "What the fuck, bro!?"

Ignoring York, Maine dug into his backpack, pulling out a wrapped up package and handing it to York. "Wait... you got us something?" York asked, and Maine nodded, trying not to laugh. "Aw, thanks, man! I always knew you weren't as scary as we all thought!"

York opened the package, then promptly screamed in utter horror. Wrapped up in the package was a dead Cave-Spider, still leaking green venom from it's cold, dead fangs. North screeched as well, both miners taking off down one of the hallways. With them gone, Maine chuckled weakly under his breath, pulling out a few blankets from his pack so that Sigma could float out. Earlier, before they'd all gone into the ravine, Maine had hidden Sigma in his backpack. Even if they had met under odd circumstances, and had been admittedly terrified of each other at first, Maine and Sigma had grown rather fond of each other over time. Besides, Sigma had practically BEGGED Maine to let him come along, eager to investigate the mysteries of the ravine with the Freelancers and Blood Gulch Crew.

"Hello, Maine!" Sigma greeted excitedly, the Blaze floating eagerly around Maine, laughing at the slight of the dead Cave-Spider on the mineshaft floor. "It seems North and York weren't prepared for that little trick, hm?"

Maine shrugged, putting everything but Sigma and the dead Cave-Spider back into his backpack, giving Sigma a small smirk. "Ready so soon? Are you sure you don't need to take a moment to rest?" Sigma inquired, and when Maine shook his head, the self-aware Mob chuckled and nodded his body to Maine. "Then we'd best be off."

...

Church walked up a stone staircase into the entrance of the Fortress, the first to arrive it appeared. "Hell yeah!" He shouted, practically running up the stairs. "First here! Suck on that, Tex!" He yelled to no one, reveling in his own accomplishment.

Church froze, however, as he reached the top of the staircase, only to see none other than Caboose. The blue miner was sitting patiently on the rim of a long since dried out water fountain, his bright blue eyes surprisingly enough focused on a map in his hands. Church was surprised by the sight, having figured that Caboose would be the last person to think to bring a map along when entering the ravine, yet here he was, seriousness transcribed into his features as he examined the map. Church said nothing at first, still feeling bad after having abandoned Caboose many months earlier. Even though he'd been back for awhile, he and Caboose hadn't hung out one-on-one since before he'd left.

Suddenly, Caboose glanced up, and Church almost jumped. Caboose's eyes were piercing, but not judgmental in any way, as if he were merely studying the undead miner who had so selfishly left him so long ago. Saying nothing, Caboose moved over, patting the water fountain's edge as he ushered for Church to come sit with him. After a moment of hesitation, Church did indeed take a seat beside the younger miner, feeling awkward and strange beside his teammate. He had no justifiable reason for this other than regret, but Church knew that that wasn't the feeling in his chest as he stared at Caboose, feeling... warm, like the sun was shining down onto his bare stomach even though he was underground. It felt good, it felt nice, it felt... it felt like how he'd felt for someone else once.

"A map?" Church asked, after a few more minutes of extended silence. "Didn't think you'd bring one."

"What if we need to dig up? We would need to know what was above us." Caboose explained, showing Church his map. Above where they were, red dots meaning lava were around their cursors. "We will need to be very careful if we have to leave fast."

"Smart fucking thinking." Church commented, smirking at Caboose. "Guess you're not an idiot after all, huh?" Dear Notch, Church wanted nothing more than to slap himself as the words left his mouth.

'Guess you're not an idiot after all'!? The fuck kinda compliment was that!? Church almost groaned aloud at his own foolishness, but stopped himself, glancing instead at Caboose. Caboose had put away the map, and now just blinked at Church with a blank stare, almost appearing confused. Church swallowed, fumbling for some sort of reply, or excuse, or anything really! Anything would be better than that sad stare, that stare that quietly asked 'Why'. The thing was, Church had no idea what the why was for. Why did you say that? Why did you leave me? Why do you think I'm an idiot? Why do you keep failing me? Church sighed, looking away from Caboose, feeling out of place and invisible beside the miner. He almost wanted to be.

"I'm sorry." Church finally mumbled, still not meeting the other miner's eyes. "I just... I'm so sorry, Caboose. I didn't mean it like that."

Caboose blinked again, before smiling, catching Church by surprise as he wrapped an arm around the zombie. "I forgive you, Church!" He promised, before pulling on his backpack, flashing Church a wide grin of excitement. "Come on, let's go look for the others!" He said, grabbing Church's hand as he took off deeper into the Fortress.

Church almost cursed Caboose out as the stronger miner forcefully dragged him along, running impossibly fast, but he didn't. Church let out a sigh, a fatigued yet accepting smile on his face. As long as Caboose forgave him, it'd be fine.

...

A/N: Another chapter done! Hope y'all like it! That last scene was all for you, RoseAssassin26 (And me and my Churboose trash heart)! In the meantime, the Nether Worry Fanart Contest is still open, so if you wanna go for it, I'll paste the rules below:

1\. All entries must be submitted to Tumblr, and placed under the tag #rvb minecraft au

2\. Anyone can enter, but must have a Tumblr account in order to fulfill rule number one (I'm now allowing DeviantArt, too! Just PM on Tumblr, AO3, or FFN so I can check it out please!)

3\. Please message me on Tumblr or on a site I have this fic on when you post your art, though this is not required of you, it would be greatly appreciated.

4\. All participants will have their art placed in the story on AO3 (So long as it's a scene in the actual fic) (Jujukind will be assisting me with it after the fic is finished).

5\. You can draw anything, as long as it's from the Minecraft AU and not yaoi. You can draw anything, from an actual scene to a comic, or even just one of the characters in their armor.

6\. At the end of the contest, I'll pick out my top five favorites, to which I will write them all RvB fanfiction.

7\. Writing is also optional, though it will not be posted in Nether Worry on AO3

8\. That's about it. Have fun!

~Supercasey.


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